EECOLLECTIOXS 



PERSONS AND EVENTS, 



IX THE CITY OF NEW YOEK 



SELECTIONS FKOM HIS JOURNAL, 






/' BY 



J. M. MATHEWS, D. D. 



" Tour fathers, where are they ?" 




NEW YORK: 
SHELDON AND COMPANY, 



40 8 BROADWAY 
M DCCC LXV. 






Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1S95, 

By J. M. MATHEWS, D. D., 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United Stated for the Southern District 

of New Torlc. 



C. A. Al.VOltl), STEKEOTYPEJt AND PKINTER. 



DEDICATION 



New York, March I8ih, 1865. 

To James Bookman, Esq. : 

My dear Sir — Permit me to dedicate this volume 
to you, as one of our oldest and most respected citi- 
zens. In one sense it is especially a New York 
book. It passes in review the rapid and unequalled 
progress of the City in population, wealth, and every 
ability for promoting the intellectual and moral wel- 
fare of her own inhabitants and of the whole nation. 
But if New York has acquired this distinctive emi- 
nence, she is greatly indebted for it to her Mer- 
chants, who have made her the commercial metrop- 
olis both of the United States and of the Western 
Continent. By a wise forecaste and a liberal policy, 
she has drawn to herself from various countries 
choice men, who have united with her native sons 
in placing her among tlie first cities of the world for 
the extent of her commerce and the high character 
of those who conduct it. 

Among this' class of her citizens you have long 
occupied a prominent position, and none of them 
have contributed more freely and effectually than 



4 Dedication. 

yourself to enlarge lier resources, to provide for her 
future prosperity, aud to establish among us the 
Institutions of religion, learning, and benevolence, 
which should be viewed as one of the great purposes 
for which wealth is bestowed by the Giver of all 
good. Believe me now, as always. 

Yours with sincere respect and affection, 

J. M. Mathews. 



PEEFAOE. 



The last fifty or sixty years have "been remarkably 
prolific in men and events whicli have left their mark 
on the history of the Church and of the world. As 
it has pleased God to prolong my life until I have 
reached the age of eighty years, I of course have 
been more or less conversant with many of them ; 
and it has been my practice to embrace early oppor- 
tunities of referring to them in my Journal while 
the circumstances were yet fresh in my memory, and 
the lessons to be drawn from them were not only the 
subjects of thought and reflection in my own mind, 
but of conversation with others. This promptitude 
I consider very important in giving a true repre- 
sentation of transactions or events which may pass 
into history. Circumstances or incidents that may 
appear as mere accidental accompaniments when re- 
viewed after the lapse of years, often have an important 
influence in giving shape and meaning to events at 
the time of their occurrence. 



6 Preface. 

The practice of recording my own reflections in 
connection with the events which gave rise to them, 
may be viewed as imparting to a Journal something 
of the character of a Common-Place Book. So be it. 
I see no objection to such a combination. Every 
man must know that some of his most valuable reflec- 
tions are lost to him by forgetfulness. They may 
have arisen from reading, from conversation, from 
his own meditations, from some incident occurring, 
perhaps, before his eyes, or, again, of which he may 
have heard. But unless they are fastened in some 
record, before, like riches of another kind, they 
"make themselves wings and fly away," they may 
soon be lost beyond recovery. Mind is always busy, 
and if we take pains to treasure up what it furnishes 
from time to ti:me, and which is worth preserving 
while yet in its freshness, we may soon acquire a 
store of intellectual materials which will be of great 
value to us in after times. I make this suggestion to 
my younger brethren in the ministry, in the hope 
that it may be of use to them. They may find in 
thoughts thus preserved what may be of great im- 
portance to them when preparing for the pulpit or 
other public services. So I have found it in my own 
experience. Some of these reflections or observations 



Preface. 7 

lirst written in my Journal, I have already used in 
various discourses or on other public occasions: 
but when referring to them in the following pages, 
I have still retained them in their original connection, 
although, as I have elsewhere said, at the risk of 
being charged with repeating myself. 

It may be thought that the style of writing in some 
of the articles is too familiar, especially when I am 
giving biographical sketches, or rehearsing conversa- 
tions which have taken place between others and 
myself. But a Journal should be Journal-like. It 
derives much of its value from giving things, both in 
manner and matter, just as they occurred. Men, in 
their social intercourse with each other, do not 
speak in the exact and careful style in which they 
would write a sermon on some important doctrine in 
theology, or would prepare an essay on some intri- 
cate question in metaphysics. They let out their 
thoughts and feelings very much as they arise ; and 
although a record of such matters may be viewed by 
some as too colloquial, to others it may be not the 
less interesting because familiar and natural. For 
myself, I may say I have never enjoyed intercourse 
with intelligent and well-known men more than 



8 Preface. 

wlien they have entirely released their minds from 
all restraint, and poured forth their thoughts and 
sentiments with a freedom that cares not for criticism, 
and does not even think of it. 

My habitual and free association with brethren of 
other denominations may have imparted a Catholic 
spirit and tone to the following pages, which, I hoj)e, 
will not render them less acceptable. The majority 
of our public Institutions with which I have been 
connected have been much of this character; and 
various circumstances have combined to render my 
social intercourse unusually intimate with men who 
were one in spirit, though not in name, with myself. 
While Dr., afterwards Bishop, Wainwright remained 
Rector of Grace Church, we were not only near 
neighbors — our dwellings being so contiguous that we 
might have spoken to each other from our windows — 
but our respective parishioners were so connected 
with each other by domestic as well as other ties, 
that very few days passed in which we had not the 
opportunity of meeting. He was not only the gentle- 
man and Christian, but a warm-hearted friend, and 
I gladly take this fitting occasion of expressing my 
cordial regard for his memory. 



Preface. 9 

In the present condition of the country, I could 
not keep a Journal entirely silent as to her present 
trials and her perils in the future. For years have I 
felt strong apprehensions for her welfare. Not that 
I have doubted the strength of the Government to 
maintain the unity and integrity of the nation. My 
fears have arisen from that habitual forgetfulness of 
God, and that uncurbed spii'it of self-exaltation 
which seemed to pervade all ranks, rulers and ruled. 
If a nation so favored as ourselves "sacrifice to their 
net and burn incense to their own drag," a rebuke 
must follow, and all the worse for them if they refuse 
to hear it. The thought has often impressed me 
deeply and painfully, and this may account for the 
manner in which I have dwelt upon it in the latter 
part of the present volume. Would to God that 
our people might be enabled to see their sin in the 
punishment we are now suffering, and rightly hum- 
ble themselves before Him while we feel the rod of 
His chastisement. 

In view of the Republic of France, short-lived as 
it was, and so productive of misery to the nation 
while it lasted, an eloquent French statesman has 
remarked, "A Republic of men without God is 
quickly stranded. When you terrify it, it bends ; 



10 Preface. 

if you would Ibuy it, it sells itself. The liberator of 
America died confiding to God the liberty of the 
people, and his own soul." 

Some of the following extracts have from time to 
time appeared in the daily and weekly journals, and 
the attention paid to them by readers may be one 
reason which inclined me to conaply with the request 
that I would publish enough of them to make a 
volume. I had long contemplated leaving my papers 
to a brother clergyman, if he should survive me, to 
make such use of them as he might see fit in throw- 
ing light upon events and characters in the last half- 
century. It was not until he joined with others that 
I consented to publish the following selections. I can- 
not now decide how far I may hereafter go in making 
use of the ample materials in hand for a more elabo- 
rate and connected history of my life. The work, if 
done at all, would perhaps be better done by another. 
It is somewhat difficult to write a faithful autobiog- 
raphy that shall be free from all bias in favor of men 
or measures wherewith the writer may himself be more 
or less identified. And yet there are reasons which 
serve to show that a man can best tell his own story. 
Whatever may be my decision, I desbe to leave 



Peeface. 11 

tlie result iu the liauds of Him who lias appointed 
both "the measure of my days" and the nature and 
amount of my labors in His service. Wlienever He 
sees fit to call me away from earth and time, I would 
esteem it a privilege to be found "with the harness 
on," still doing what I may for Him and His cause 
who has made "goodness and mercy to follow me all 
the days of my life." 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 

Clergy in New York in 1810 — Livingston, Rodgers, Moore, 
Abeel, Hobart, Miller, McLeod, Mason. Page 1 7 

CHAPTER II. 

Dangers of College Life — Instances showing the Fatal Results 
of Early Dissipation — Responsibility of College OflBcers as to the 
Morals of Youth under their care — Happy Influence of the Society 
of Ladies on the Minds as mcU as the Manners of Young Men. 

Page 30 

CHAPTER III. 

Robert Fulton — His Appearance and Manner — His Sensitive- 
ness under the Indifference manifested toward him in France and 
England — His First Voyage by Steam from New York to Al- 
bany — His Anxiety during the Voyage — Account of the first Pe- 
cuniary Acknowledgment he Received for his Services — The 
Trials he Endured from Vexatious Opposition — Mr. Emmet's 
Eloquent Address when Pleading his Cause before the Legislature 
— Professor Morse and the Electric Telegraph. Page 41 

CHAPTER IV. 

An Evening with Dr. Mason — His Exuberance of Spirits — 
Periods of Depression — Anecdotes respecting Gouvcrneur Morris, 
Bishop Moore, Dr. Livingston, Dr. Bissett, Dr. Withcrspoon, Ben- 
jamin Franklin, Mr. Whitfield — Comparison of Whitfield with 
Ivlason — Chief Point of Dificrencc between the two as Preachers 
. — Dr. Mason's Talent as an Expositor. Page 54 



14 Contents. 

CHAPTER V. 

De Witt Clinton, Stephen Van Rensselaer, James Kent, Abra- 
ham Van Vechten — Sketches of their Character and Appearance 
— Conversation on Religious Subjects — Causes which have con- 
tributed to Banish Infidelity from the Minds of Public Men — 
( )[)inions respecting Calvin — Origin of Civil Freedom, or Govern- 
ment by Representation, found in the Bible. Page 67 



CHAPTER VI. 

Interview with Colonel Aaron Burr — Generally Avoided by his 
Former Acquaintances after his Return from Europe — Interest felt 
on his behalf on account of his Religious Parentage — His Collo- 
quial Powers — His Sensibility at the Remembrance of his Pa- 
rents — Sorrow over the Death of his Daughter — His Resentment 
at feeling himself so Generally Proscribed — His Despondency as 
to himself — His Death, Page 86 

CHAPTER VII. 

Colonel Henry Rutgers — His Character — His Devotion to the 
Cause of the Country in the American Revolution — His Liberality 
to the Cause of Religion — Striking Instance Showing his Wise 
Judgment in Deeds of Benevolence — Duty of our Merchants and 
others to Young Men in their Employ. Page 103 



CHAPTER VIII. 

Death of John Quincy Adams — Conspicuous Features in his 
Character — His Undeviating Adherence to what he Conceived to 
be Right, Exemplified in his Appointments to OflBce while Presi- 
dent of the United States, also while our Minister at the Court 
of the Netherlands — His Great Respect for the Memory of his 
Mother — His Opinions of a Mother's Influence on the Character 
of Distinguished Men — Importance of the Subject — How Illus- 
trated in History both Sacred and Profane — Susceptibility of 
Earlv Childhood to a Mother's Influence. Pao-e IIG 



Contents. 15 



CHAPTER IX. 

Era of Bible Societies — Rev. Mr. Charles, of Bala — Origin of 
the British and Foreign Bible Society — Honorable Elias Boudinot 
— Convention to Form the American Bible Society — Address of 
the Convention to the Public — Multiplication of the Scriptures by 
Means of Bible Societies — The Bible the First Book Printed with 
Types — Improvement in the Art of Printing within the last Fifty 
Years — Superiority of the English Translation of the Bible — Re- 
sponsibility of England and America for the spread of Christianity 
and Civilization. Page 131 

CHAPTER X. 

Declension in Religion After the Days of Edwards and Wliit- 
field — Views of Dr. Green and Bishop Meade — Apathy Prevailing 
as to Foreign Missions — Rise of the A. B. C. F. M. — Subsequent 
Revival of Religion in the Churches — New York Missionary So- 
ciety — Influence of Dr. Morrison in Awakening Sympathy for the 
Heathen — Increasing Activity of the Missionary Spirit — Respon- 
sibility of the American Churches in Evangelizing the Pagan 
World — Great Importance of Institutions for the Special Training 
of Foreign Missionaries. Page 157 

CHAPTER XI. 

Importance of the Medical Profession in Foreign Missions — Our 
Lord's Miracles of Healing, as Signs of His Coming — Luke, the 
" Beloved Physician," as a Companion and Aid to Paul — Dangers 
in the way of Medical Students — Duty of Christians in Reference 
to them — Description of an Accomplished and Successful Physi- 
cian. Page 178 

CHAPTER XH. 

University of the City of New York — Considerations which Led 
to the Establishment of it — Literary Convention — Address at its 
Opening — Inauguration of Professors — Addresses on the Occasion 
— Erection of the University Building — Grant from the Legisla- 
ture — Resignation of the Chancellorship — Action of the Council 



16 Contents. 

on the Occasion — Review of Leading and Distinguishing Features 
of the University — Advantages of New York as the Site of such 
an Institution — Dangers to Public Men from Excessive Labors. 

Page 189 

CHAPTER XIIL 

Changes in New York — Population — Public Places — Public 
Buildings — Public Men — Churches — Removal of Churches from 
the First Six Wards — Inadequate Supply of Churches for the 
whole City — Influence of Religion in Cities upon the Country — 
Special Duties and Responsibilities of Christians in such a City as 
New York. Page 259 

CHAPTER XIV. 

Interview between Rev. Dr. Rodgers and General Hamilton — 
Convention to Frame the Constitution of the United States — 
Perplexity attending their Deliberations — Erroneous Statement 
of their Proceedings on Dr. Franklin's Motion to Appoint a 
Chaplain — True Account in the Madison Papers — Forgetfulness of 
God, witb Self-Exaltation, a Prevalent Sin of the Nation — The Sin 
Rebuked in the Present National Troubles — State Rights and 
Federal Sovereignty as Exhibited in the Letters of General Wash- 
ington — Moral Considerations which should Contribute to tbe 
Future Peace and Harmony of the Nation. Page 310 



RECOLLECTIONS OF PERSONS AND EVENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 



Clergy of New York in 1810. — Livingston, Rodgers, Mooue, 
Abeel, Hobart, Miller, McLeod, Mason. 

The early part of tlie present century found 
the pulpit of New York supplied with a ministry 
of eminent talent and great worth of character. 
Almost every Denomination had its share. 

In the Dutch Church there was Rev. Dr. 

Livingston. He was in the fullest sense a man 

of. the Old School, not only in doctrine, but in 

manners, in mode of life, and even in dress. 

He was born in 1746, and retained to the last 

much of the costume and many of the habits 

which belonged to the clergy in his early days. 

I have a distinct recollection of his appearance 

as he walked our streets, erect as a grenadier 

on parade, his gold headed cane carried upright 
2 



18 Recollections of 

before liim, like the mace of a magistrate, his 
spacious and broad brimmed hat surmounting the 
white wig which spread its curls upon his shoul- 
ders, the ample square skirts of his coat falling 
below his knees, and his shoe-buckles glittering 
on his feet as though the dust did not dare to 
soil them. Such a figure was not to be pass- 
ed by without attention and reverence. 

In politeness of manners he had no superior; 
indeed he carried its forms to the extreme limit. 
He would always have the last bow to his ac- 
quaintances, whether parting from them at his 
own house or at theirs. In a playful humor some 
of his clerical brethren occasionally tried how 
far the good Doctor would carry this habit ; 
but they invariably had to give up the struggle, 
for let them follow the polite old gentleman far 
as they would, and bowing at every step, he 
would still have the last bow. 

He was as much unlike others in the pulpit 
as in the street or drawing-room. While the 
essential doctrines of the Gospel that know no 
change, formed the great staple of his discourses, 
he enunciated them in a manner that constantly 
reminded you of generations gone by; of the fa- 



Persons and Events. 19 

thers whose works you had read, but whose 
faces you had never seen. He seemed in no way 
inclined to belong to the present generation. 
Perhaps it was one of his errors that he thought 
the world was gro's^dng small, losing in stature 
very fast. But whatever may have been his 
error in this respect, he was eminently a good 
man, a sound impressive minister of the Gospel; 
and had been honored to act an important part 
in healing; the breaches which at one time 
threatened to overthrow the Reformed Dutch 
Church in this country. 

Dr. J. N. Abeel belonged to the same de- 
nomination. It was to him that the Dutch 
Church chiefly looked at this time as an efficient 
leader; and their confidence was well deserved. 
Dr. Abeel was a man of sound judgment, calm 
temper, gentle manners; and, as a preacher, he 
was distinguished for the clearness of his illus- 
trations, especially when handling the experimen- 
tal truths of Christianity. He had also a most 
happy faculty of reaching the hearts of young 
men. The state of the Church, when he was 
in his prime, was such that his labors were not 
only "more abundant," but so excessive that his 



20 Recollections of 

strength failed, and lie finished his coui'se at a 
comparatively early age, leaving a wide breach 
in the ministry of this city. All denomina- 
tions mourned his death, for the gentleness of 
his spirit and the usefulness of his services had 
endeared him to all. 

In the Episcopal Church, the grave and dig- 
nified, yet gentle manners of Bishop Benjamin 
Moore, well befitted his station as the head of 
the clergy in his diocese. I frequently heard 
him preach, but was always most pleased with 
him when he "read the Prayers." He was 
eminently a devout man; and the rich, clear, 
solemn tones of his voice gave great effect to 
the service. He was a ready and able advo- 
cate of whatever formed the distinctive features 
of his own denomination; and yet there was a 
spirit of comity and frankness in his controver- 
sial writings that did him honor. Controversy, 
however, was a field for which he had little 
taste. He was a man of peace, and preferred 
to labor where he found none to gainsay or 
question his teachings. 

Dr. Hobart, who afterwards succeeded him 
in the Bishopric, and who was now rising rapid- 



Persons and Events. 21 

ly in tlie esteem of the denomination, was a 
man of a different temperament. He possessed 
a quick and vivacious mind; was ardent and 
fixed in his purposes, and indefatigable in his 
labors. Generally he had some controversy on 
hand, and I have often jested with him on his be- 
ing such a man of war from his youth up. But 
although he was so often in the field as a po- 
lemic, no one who knew him could question the 
honesty of his motives, or the generosity of his 
heart. I have no doubt that his zeal and ac- 
tivity were among the causes which contributed 
to awaken the Episcopal Church to tTiat laudable 
spirit of active benevolence that now distinguish- 
es her. 

Dr. Rodgers was the Simeon of the Presby- 
terian Church. He had seen the salvation of 
the Lord, and was waiting to depart in peace. 
The congregations to which he had long minis- 
tered were under the care of men in whom he 
had full confidence. 

Dr. Samuel Miller was distinguished for the 
completeness of his ministerial character. Al- 
though he had not the eloquence nor the force 
of some others, his sermons were always evangel- 



22 Recollections of 

ical, chaste, and well finished. His industr)^ 
and habits of study rendered him more and 
more extensively a man of learning, so that few 
Divines stood before him in this respect, even 
before he took his place as Professor at Princeton ; 
and his finished manners as a gentleman, won 
his way with acceptance in every society where 
he wished to enter, or aimed to be useful. 

Dr. Romeyn had just come to the city. He 
was an animated, earnest man in the pulpit; 
and for several years after he was settled in 
New York, his ministry was remarkably success- 
ful. 

But of the Presbyterian ministers, there are 
two yet to be noticed, who were men of pre-em- 
ment ability and yet widely different from each 
other, — Drs. McLeod and Mason. 

Dr. McLeod was distinguished for massive 
strength. At the first glance you saw a Her- 
cules before you. Not that he was destitute 
of the lighter qualities of the mind. His wit 
was ready, generally playful, and sometimes ex- 
ceedingly caustic. He could, when he pleased, 
make his adversaries so ludicrous, as to oblige 
them to laugh at themselves. But this was 



Persons and Events. 23 

not often liis choice when engaged in controver- 
sjo He loved to be serious when handling se- 
rious subjects, and his inind was habitually bent 
on the business of his profession as a minister 
of the Gospel. Theology was his study, the 
pursuit of his life; and he was as thoroughly 
a master in it, as I have ever seen. His pow- 
er of analysis and discrimination made every 
thing plain, whether in doctrinal, practical, or 
experimental Christianity. His publications are 
still extensively read, both at home and abroad. 
But, however much relished as they appear from 
the press, his discourses made their deei:>est im- 
pression when heard fi-om the pulpit. In his 
preaching he was a fair type of what is de- 
scribed as the impassioned strength of John 
Knox. He usually began in a moderate tone 
and manner; but before he or his hearers 
seemed to be aware of it, he was pouring forth 
a stream of eloquence mth the thunder and 
power of a cataract. I frequently -went to 
hear him ; and at times, he has seemed not so 
much as if he would spring out of the j^ulpit, 
as if he would come do^^'n ujion us, bringing 
pulpit and all with him. He belonged to tliat 



24 Recollections of 

branch of the Presbyterian Church called the 
Covenanters, or Reformed Presbyterian; and 
while he was the leading star in his own imme- 
diate denomination, his worth and ability were 
acknowledged and respected throughout the 
whole Christian community. 

Of Dr. Mason I can speak from an intimate 
knowledge of the man. I was brought up at 
the feet of Gamaliel, and knew him well ; per- 
haps none knew him better. For many years 
not a day passed that we did not meet. There 
was nothing belonging to him, whether in body 
or mind, which could be called small or com- 
mon. He was formed on a magnificent scale, 
and was every inch a man. When he acted, 
spoke, or even looked, he left his mark. His 
temperament was ardent. Like Owen, Hall,* 
Scott, and others of that stamp, he had sea- 



*It must have been a rare treat to see these two men, Mason 
and Hall, together. Dr. Mason has often taken occasion to re- 
late to me incidents that occurred in their intercourse. Though 
fully agreed on the essentials of religion, there were some things on 
which they differed. Dr. Mason was a most enthusiastic admirer 
of Dr. John Owen's writings. Mr. Hall did not esteem them so 
highly. In their conversation on the merits of the venerable old 
non-conformist. Dr. Mason named one thing after another which 
he considered proofs of surpassing learning and ability; but Mr. 



Persons and Events. 25 

sons of spiritual despondency; and then again 
sucli times of elevation and joy, tliat whether 
"in the body or out of the body," he could 
scai'cely tell. In social intercourse, he was a 
great favorite on account of his gentlemanly 
manners, his kindness of heart, his abundance of 
anecdote, his buoyant spirits, and the flexibility 
of his temper to meet all tastes and all circum- 
stances. By universal consent of all denomina- 
tions, he had no superior in the richness and 
power of his eloquence. His imagination was 
lofty, and yet carefully trained ; his language 
choice, and yet exuberant; his conceptions clear, 
distinct, and yet flowing in a current as if he 
could not restrain them; and his bursts of feel- 
ing at times so overpowering that I have seen 
whole assemblies comprising rich and poor, 
learned and unlearned, bowed down before him 
with one impulse, till there was scarce a dry eye 
to be seen. 

Hall still demurred. At length Dr. Mason observed, " You will at 
least allow that he goes deep into his subject." "Yes," replied Mr. 
Hall, "he goes down deep, and comes up muddy." Dr. Mason 
never repeated this reply without a hearty laugh over its aptness 
and pungency, and would conclude his notice of their interviews 
with the declaration— "After all, Mr. Hall is among the greatest 
of the giant minds of England." Par nobile fratrum. 



26 Recollections of 

The public will always make heavy drafts on 
the time and strength of such a man, and will 
Mil him with labor before his time comes, if he 
will let them do it. Dr. Mason's willing and 
generous spirit undertook too much for his 
strength, great as it was. While he still retain- 
ed his pastoral relations to his Church, he be- 
came Professor of Theology in the Seminary he 
founded, Provost of Columbia College, besides 
being called upon to take a leading part in the 
great movements for the spread of religion 
through Bible Societies, and other kindred insti- 
tutions. He broke down at an age when other 
men are in the height of their usefulness. But 
the ruins had a grandeur which reminded us of 
what the man had been when he was himself. 

In looking back on the characters of such 
men as Drs. Mason, McLeod, and others of 
their day and sj^irit, we see how wisely their 
gifts were adapted to the wants of their times 
and their generation. They were " sons of 
thunder." They were not only great men, but 
much of their greatness lay in their energy of 
purpose, their power to rouse and excite. This 
was what the Churches then around them most 



Persons and Events. 27 

needed in their leaders. The age of Mission- 
ary Societies, of Bible and Tract Societies, was 
now to be inaugurated. The time had come 
when the command, " Go ye into all the world 
and preach the Gospel to every creature," was 
to take a new and fresh hold on the conscience 
of Christians ; and" they needed " sons of thun 
der" to wake them up to a sense of their duty. 
They found what they so much required in 
these ardent and accomplished ministers of the 
Gospel. True, they were not without their 
faults; and where can we find men that are free 
from faults? "Let him that is without sin first 
cast a stone." Indeed, great men often have great 
faults. There is nothing about them on a small 
scale. Every thing that belongs to the man ^vill 
partake, in some degree, of his own greatness. 
The sun has its spots, and sj^ots so large that 
they would extinguish a lesser luminary. Such 
seems to be the ordering of Providence in this 
world, and perhaps with the design of so putting a 
stain on human glory as to enforce his own com- 
mand: "Cease from man, whose breath is in his 
nostrils ; for wherein is he to l)e accounted of ?" 
Prune do\\Ti the greatest of men till you have 



28 Recollections of 

made him faultless, and you will make bim 
tame. You may liave a sheet of paper, per- 
fectly white, and without a mark upon it. But 
though it be free from a blot, it is, after all, 
blank paper. So it is with men, and in the 
affairs of life. 

Pity, pity, that the World and the Church 
do not understand and remember this rightly. 
It would render them more just, and more kind 
and charitable to those who spend their vigorous 
strength in doing good to those who too often 
repay them with reproach and injury. 

We may well refer to it as a cause of grat- 
itude to the great Head of the Church, that 
when these illustrious men, these Elijahs were 
carried up into heaven, they left their mantle 
behind them. They were succeeded by a min- 
istry well adapted to preserve and strengthen 
the spirit in our churches which had been awa- 
kened chiefly by their instrumentality. Some 
of these brethren still survive. Some have 
rested from their labors, and their works follow 
them. The names of McMurray, Milnor, Wain- 
wright, Alexander, Knox and others, their con- 
temporaries and compeers, are embalmed in the 



Persons and Events. 29 

memory of thousands among us as men of sound 
judgment, lofty purpose, and untiring zeal, not 
only in their respective churches, but in those 
Institutions of enlarged benevolence which have 
been formed for the spread of truth and intelli- 
gence, not only through oui* land but through 
the world. 



30 Recollections of 



CHAPTER II. 

Dangers of College Life. — Instances showing the Fatal 
Results of Early Dissipation. — Responsibility of College 
Officers as to the Morals of Youth under their care. — 
Happy Influence of the Society of Ladies on the Minds 

AS WELL AS the MaNNERS OF YoUNG MeN. 

IiNT May, 1813, I met witli a painful occur- 
rence. I was going down Broadway near the 
Battery, and observed a man before me leaning 
against a lamp-post, whose clothes showed that 
he had been taken out of the gutter. Our eyes 
met as I approached him, and I saw it was my 

former class-mate in colleg-e, S T . 

Though greatly intoxicated, he recognized me, 
and turned away his face as I passed him. I 
could not leave him as he was; and turned 
back to see what I could do for him. When I 
called him by name, he burst into tears, and in 
a low tone of voice be^rored me not to des-rade 
myself by speaking to him in the street. I in- 
sisted, however on taking him home with me, 
notwithstanding his squalid appearance; where, 



Persons and Events. 31 

after a few hours sleep, lie told me his melan- 
clioly story. His intemperance had led his rela- 
tives to cast him off; and he was then on his 
way to Philadelphia to seek employment from a 
gentleman with whom, in his better days, he had 
formed an acquaintance at Saratoga. His chance, 
he remarked, was very slender; but it was all 
that remained to him, and he was determined to 
try it. He did try it, but without success. I 
never heard of him afterwards, and fear he died 
by his own hand. 

He told me what I well knew, that his bad 
habits were contracted while at college. He was 
only one out of many of my fellow students, 
who had fallen victims to the temptations of a 
college life. In those days, there were no Tem- 
perance Societies; and temperance itself was lit- 
tle understood, and still less regarded. Hot sup- 
pers, midnight carousals, were too frequent with 
us, and sowed the seeds of a vice that in a few 
years carried off a fearful proportion of our num- 
ber to an untimely grave. What a wreck of 
life and hio-li talent do I see when I look back ! 

Brilliant and generous-hearted J B 1 

He seemed to know every thing as if by intui- 



32 Recollections of 

tion. An hour at study was quite as sufficient 
for him, as a day for others ; and yet averse as 
he was to protracted or continued labor, no per- 
plexed class-mate ever sought his aid in vain. 
He would sit down beside the slowest and dull- 
est of them all, and would somehow contrive to 
work the lesson or recitation into their minds, 
before he would quit them; and in the exube- 
rance of his spirits, he would laugh at his 
own patience when the work was done. It 
might be the Classics, or Mathematics, or Ethics; 
every thing seemed to come to him without effi^rt. 
He had a voice, too, of great compass and ring- 
ing tone, that made him one of the first among 
speakers; and all was accompanied w^ith that 
natural ease and gracefulness of manner, that 
won upon you irresistibly. With such talents, 
and with family connections, including some of 
the most distinguished and influential men in 
the State, he seemed to have before him the 
prospect of a most brilliant career in public life. 
His ambition lay in that direction. How often 
has he said to me that he would never be sat- 
isfied until he had become a leader in the 
councils of the nation ; and much did I hope 



Persons and Events. 88 

that his high aim would tend to save him from 
the habit that had begun to grow upon him. 
But, no. He had scarcely gained admission to 
the bar, when he sank down into a sot, and 
died a dishonored death in the morning of his 
life. I saw him when he was very low in his 
misery. He knew all, and confessed all. " I 
have seen the last of my happy days," he said, 
"the cloud that is over me will never be scat- 
tered. My heart is worse than broken. It 
has been made a burnt offerins; to the Demon 
of Brandy." I well remember the scalding tear 
and tlie quivering voice with which he made 
the confession. 

E ^ H was another of my class-mates. 

He seemed to live in a constant gale of glad- 
ness. His wit was sparkling, but always good- 
natured. He had a wonderful talent for mim- 
icry. He could imitate every thing animate or 
inanimate. He was not a good scholai*; but 
even when his deficiencies were most glaring, he 
had some humorous remark respecting his studies 
or himself, which not only disarmed the Profes- 
sor of all angry feeling, but seemed also to ren- 
der liim equally a favorite with teachers and 



34 Recollections of 

students. He, too, yielded to the temptation ; 
became so degraded and lost that he was at 
times taken to the watch-house in the dead of 
night, and in a few years was hidden in his 
grave. I have been told, that during the lat- 
ter part of his life, all that milk of human kind- 
ness that so distinguished his earlier years, 
seemed to be changed into the very gall of misan- 
thropy. He boasted, in his despair, that he 
would not only " curse God and die ;" but that 
with his last breath, he would "curse both God 
and man." 

And there was my affectionate J N . 

A nobler or a warmer heart can seldom, if ever, 
be given to man. Such was our mutual attach- 
ment that he had well nigh changed the whole 
course and business of my life. His father was 
at this time an eminent merchant in one of our 
Eastern cities. He was to enter the counting- 
house, when he left college, and most earnest 
were his entreaties that I would accompany him. 
To render the temptation the stronger, his father 
made every proposition that propriety would al- 
low, as he was anxious that J should be 

gratified. I had almost yielded. Brilliant 



Persons and Events. 35 

prospects in the world, and ardent personal at- 
tachment, at times, had very great influence upon 
my mind, before I finally decided. But reflec- 
tion restored me to my purpose. Little as 1 
then understood of what the ministry of the 
Gospel is, or of what it requires, I had for years 
kept my view fixed on it as my profession; and 

in the end, I told my friend J that I could 

not abandon it. He was grieved, though not 
displeased; and we parted, he to "his merchan- 
dise," and I to my studies, with vows of an at- 
tachment that no diversity of pursuit should be 
allowed to extinguish or abate. 

For years we embraced every opportunity of 
meeting. Our correspondence was constant and 
more than cordial. I have sometimes thouo;ht 
it breathed the spirit of David and Jonathan ; 
and so it continued until he became a junior 
partner in his father's "House." His letters 
about that time became less frequent, and he 
pleaded, in apology, the pressure of business. But 
they also lost their former freedom. There was 
constraint, with an effort to conceal it. I could 
not ])ut be alarmed. I knew " the sin that 
easily beset him," and had often implored him to 



36 Recollections of 

be on his guard. I wrote to liim frankly what 
I feared. He immediately, and in a manner 
much like his former self, thanked me for my 
candor, but assured me that he was safe against 
the temptation respecting which I was anxious. 
About the same time he was married to a lovely 
woman, and his letters on that subject were so 
like those of former days, that I hoped for the 
best. He was most haj^py in his choice, and 
as he was now forming new relations in life, 
and with new sources of enjoyment opening to 
him, I pressed on him the importance of in- 
creased vigilance, and a total withdi-awal from 
occasions of temptation. 

But althouo;h for a time he seemed to feel 
what he owed to his family, to himself, and to 
his Maker, the habit came back upon him. 
Before the end of four years from his marriage, 
his conduct to his wife had become so violent, 
that she had to return with her two little chil- 
dren to her father's house; after which he soon 
became a raving madman, and died in the 
Asylum for the Insane, — his widow soon after 
dying the victim of a broken heart, leaving their 
babes orphans. 



Persons and Events. 37 

These are sad, sad pictures. And yet they 
are selections taken at random from a countless 
group. Could I unfold the roll which would 
tell of all the evil that intemperance in our Col- 
leges has produced, we should find "it written 
within and without;" and "the writing therein, 
lamentation, and mourning, and woe." I have 
put these two or three examples on record, in 
order to show how little this Demon can be con- 
trolled by considerations of a high ambition, or 
of domestic ties; or, indeed, by any thing else, 
except that sovereign, omnipotent grace of God, 
which, alas ! is so seldom sought by the once in- 
temperate drinker. " O my soul, come not thou 
into their secret : unto their assembly, mine hon- 
or, be not thou united." Would to God that I 
could engrave upon the heart of every one, old 
and young, the graphic warning of Solomon : 
" Look not thou upon the wine when it is red, 
when it giveth his color in the cup, when it mov- 
eth itself aright. At the last it biteth like a 
serpent, and stingeth like an adder. Yea, thou 
shalt be as he that lieth down in the midst of the 
sea, or as he that lieth upon the top of a mast." 

Since the times to which I refer, our Colleges 



38 Recollections of 

have seen better days; but some of them should 
be still further improved in the exercise of a 
moral influence upon students. The nature of 
their trust throws upon them a most solemn re- 
sponsibility. From the age of fifteen to twenty- 
one, the" period of life when most of our youth 
are pursuing academical or professional education, 
the mind is like melted wax, easily impressed, 
and generally assumes the features for good or 
evil which distinguish it in after-days. Mere 
intellectual training is far fi'om the whole of a 
teacher's duty. The development and cultivation 
of right principles of conduct, and a watchful 
guardianship against the sources of contamination, 
are the still higher and more sacred duties of 
our College officers towards the young men un- 
der their care. The task of such a parental 
government may be rendered far from diificult 
or unpleasant. There is a warmth in the 
youthful heart which inclines it to embrace the 
counsels of wisdom, when given in a spirit of 
kindness and affection. But in too many in- 
stances, instead of drawing a young man with 
the cords of love, he is made to feel only the 
rod of stern authority; and when a smile might 



Persons and Events. 39 

have saved him, the frown injures, perhaps de- 
stroys him. Hand inexpertus loquor. 

I ought not to close this reference to the dan- 
gers that beset my earlier years, without men- 
tioning very distinctly one great means of my 
preservation and safety. The society of ladies 
has done much for me all my life long; and it 
was the salutary, softeuinof influence of such as- 
sociations that, with God's blessing, restrained 
me from many an excess into which I might 
otherwise have been led while receiving my ed- 
ucation. It is a bad sign when a young man 
has no relish for such company. Whatever be 
a man's station in life, whether higher or lower, 
public or private, he will become a better man, 
and escape many a disaster, if he mil listen in 
due season to the voice of the intelliojent and 
the refined among the other sex. Not only do 
they generally excel us in their nice perception 
of the proprieties of life, and in their tender 
sense of duty to l)otli God and man; but they 
are equally above us in their instinctive faculty 
of foreseeing evil before it is upon us, and of 
wisely discerning the character and motives of 
men. It \vas not all a dream which made the 



40 Recollections of 

wife of Julius Caesar so anxious that lie should 
not go to the Senate-chamber on the fatal Ides 
of March ; and had he complied with her en- 
treaties, he might have escaped the dagger of 
Brutus. Disaster followed disaster in the ca- 
reer of Napoleon, from the time that he ceased 
to feel the balance-wheel of Josephine's influence 
on his impetuous spirit. Our own Washington, 
when important questions were submitted to 
him, often has said he would like to carry 
the subject to his bed-chamber before forming 
his decision ; and those who knew the clear 
judgment and the elevated purposes of Mrs. 
Washington, thought all the better of him for 
wishing to make her a confidential counsellor. 
Indeed, the great majority of men who have 
acquired for themselves a good and great name, 
were not only married men, but happily mar- 
ried — "both paired and matched." 



Persons and Events. 41 



CHAPTER III. 

Robert Fulton. — His Appearance and Manner. — His Sensi- 
tiveness UNDER THE INDIFFERENCE MANIFESTED TOWARDS HIM 

IN France and England. — His First Voyage by Steam from 
New York to Albany. — His Anxiety during the Voyage, 
— Account of the first Pecuniary Acknowledgment he 

RECEIVED for HIS SERVICES. ThE TrIALS HE ENDURED FROM 

Vexatious Opposition. — Mr. Emmet's eloquent Address 

WHEN PLEADING HIS CaCSE BEFORE THE LEGISLATURE. PRO- 
FESSOR Morse and the Electric Telegraph. 

It must always remain as the distinctive 
honor of the Hudson River, that it was the 
cradle of Steam Navigation. It was on her 
waters that the value of the discovery was final- 
ly decided. True, the voyages (we would now 
scarcely call them " runs") were at first slow af- 
fairs compared with ^vhat has since been achieved. 
If we made the passage from New York to Al- 
bany anywhere within twenty -four hours, we 
were well satisfied, and thousrht we had a fine 
boat. I remember to have heard Fulton speak 
with great exultation when The Car of Neptune 
or The Paragon accomplished the distance in six- 



42 Recollections of 

teen hours, having wind and tide in their favor. 
How little did he comprehend the extent of the 
power he had called into action ! 

I met with him frequently during the last 
four or five years of his life. Very generally 
he was excellent company. He had seen much 
and remembered much, both of men and things 
which had passed before him when he was 
abroad. He felt even a filial reverence for Mr. 
West, and was always pleased with an opportu- 
nity of relating some incident or anecdote in the 
life of that distinguished man. But sometimes, 
with the greatest men of the State around him, 
he would become silent and abstracted, his mind 
away upon his boats. In this mood he would 
sit for perhaps half an hour, with his heavy eye- 
brows drawn down and deeply corrugated, and 
with a fixed look on the table-cloth before him, 
as if he were counting the threads ; and then, 
when he had let off the steam, he would join in 
whatever conversation might be passing, and 
would appear to enjoy it as if he had never 
thought of any thing else. 

Readily as he would take a part in any sub- 
ject that might be introduced, he was e^adently 



Persons and Events. 48 

most free when the conversation turned on 
something connected with his great achievement 
in steam-navigation. He had a keen sense of 
the unhandsome manner in which his patience 
had been tried, and his time trifled with, both 
in France and Euo;land, when eno:ao^ed in his 
experiments on sub-marine warfare ; and these 
painful recollections would have made him not 
the less willing, as his first triumph in that way, 
to have sent one of his British Majesty's vessels 
into the air during the late war between England 
and America. 

But the torpedo, with other plans and exploits 
of sub-marine warfare, seemed to be of small 
account to him, compared with the steamboat. 
With that he wished to identify his name, fame, 
and fortune. He had no concealment as to his 
frequent misgivings of heart when making his 
first efforts on our waters, and when, to oi-dinary 
observers, he might have appeared flushed with 
victory. Many of us could recollect the morn- 
ing when The Clermont, the first boat on which 
he made a journey to Albany, cast off from the 
wharf The occasion, being extensively known, 
had excited much interest, and many were 



44 Recollections of 

present to see " the ))ubble burst," as they said. 
Owing to something not foreseen, and which he 
wished to remedy, the boat had not gone far 
before she was stopped ; and, during the delay, 
he saw the significant nods and winks that were 
passing among the bystanders, many seeming to 
say, " I told you so." This, he said, only nerved 
his determination to succeed. But when after- 
wards the boat moved on, making a steady 
progress against the stream, and when the shouts 
of spectators began to rend the air, then he felt 
as if he should have fainted away, his feelings 
so entirely overpowered him ; and such, he added, 
was his state of excitement dui'ing the whole 
voyage, that when he arrived at Albany, he 
was so exhausted that he could scarcely walk 
without totterino-. 

While there, the following incident occurred, 
which well illustrates the state of his mind at 
the time. It is well worth preserving, though 
related by a gentleman who has seen fit to conceal 
his name : 

" I chanced," said he, " to be at Albany when 
Fulton arrived there in his unheard-of craft, 
which everybody felt so much interest in seeing. 



Persons and Events. 45 

Beiug ready to leave, and hearing that this craft 
was to return to New York, I repaired on board, 
and inquired for Mr. Fulton. I was referred to 
the cabin, and I there found a plain, gentlemanly 
man, whoUy alone, and engaged in writing. 

"'Mr. Fulton, I presume?' 

" ' Yes, sir.' 

" ' Do you return to New York with this boat J' 

" ' We shall try to get back, sir.' 

" ' Can I have a passage down V 

"'You can take your chance with us, sir.' 

" I inquired the amount to be paid, and after 
a moment's hesitation, a sum, I think six dollars, 
was named. The amount in coin I laid in 
his open hand, and, with his eye fixed upon 
it, he remained so long motionless, that I supposed 
there might be a miscount, and said to him, ' Is 
that right, sir?' This roused him as if from a 
kind of revery, and as he looked up at me, the 
big tear was brimming in his eye, and his voice 
faltered as he said : ' Excuse me, sir ; but memory 
was busy as I contemplated this, the first pecu- 
niary reward I have ever received for all my ex- 
ertions in adapting steam to navigation. I would 
gladly commemorate the occasion over a bottle 



46 Recollections of 

of wine with you ; but really I am too poor, even 
for that, just now; yet I trust we may meet 
again when this will not l)e so.' 

" The voyage to New York was successful, as 
all know, and terminated without accident. 

" Some four years after this, when The Cler- 
mont had been greatly improved, and her name 
changed to The North River, and when two other 
boats, namely. The Car of Neptune and The Par- 
agon, had been built, making Mr. Fulton's fleet 
three boats regularly plying between New York 
and Albany, I took passage upon one of these 
for the latter city. The cabin, in that day, was 
below; and as I walked its length, to and fro, I 
saw I was very closely observed by one I sup- 
posed a stranger. Soon, however, I recalled the 
features of Mr. Fulton ; but, without disclosing 
this, I continued my walk, and waited the result. 
At length, in passing his seat, our eyes met, when 
he sprang to his ,feet, and eagerly seizing my 
hand, exclaimed, 'I knew it must be you, for 
your features have never escaped me; and al- 
though I am still fiir from rich, yet I may ven- 
ture that bottle now.' It was ordered; and 
durino- its discussion, Mr. Fulton ran rapidly but 



Persons and Events. 47 

vividly over his experience of tlie world's coldness 
and sneers ; and of the hopeS, fears, disappointments, 
and difficulties, that were scattered through his 
whole career of discovery, up to the very point 
of his final, crowning triumph, at which he so 
fully felt he had at last arrived. 'And in re- 
viewing all these,' said he, 'T have again and 
again recalled the occasion and the incident of 
our first interview, at Albany; and never have 
I done so without its renewing in my mind the 
vivid emotions it originally caused. That seemed^ 
and still does seem to me, the turning point in 
my destiny — the dividing line between light and 
darkness, in my career upon earth, for it was the 
first actual recognition of my usefulness to my 
iellow-men.' " 

It is seen from Fulton's example, and from that 
of otliers also, that there are three stages of trial 
or conflict tli rough which all gi*eat projectors or 
inventors must pass. When their project is first 
broached, it is ridiculed. The poor man is jDitied, 
and the best that can be said of him is that he 
is becoming insane. His friends should look after 
him. Pity that he should waste his time and 
his means on such a visionary scheme, and re- 



48 Recollections of 

duce Ills family to destitution. He should be 
put under some wise riestraint. 

When the inventor goes on amidst all this 
torrent of ridicule and compassion, and shows 
that he has really produced something valuable, 
then envy begins to show itself. He is told 
that, after all, there is nothing new in what he 
claims to have discovered or carried out; that 
others have known all this long before, but did 
not think it worth while to make a noise about 
it; and that, at best, he is stealing another man's 
thunder, and should be discountenanced for his 
dishonesty. 

But if still he goes on, and his discovery is 
found to put money in his purse, then comes the 
tug of war. If he has obtained a patent for his 
discovery or his invention, every species of art 
will be employed to evade it. When he has 
put down one assailant, another will start up, as 
if to weary him out with endless strife; and too 
often they break his heart, and wrest from him 
what, if enjoyed, would have been but a moder- 
ate compensation for the trials of a lifetime, 
others growing rich by reaping the harvest that 
in justice belonged to him. 



Persons and Events. 49 

Throiici^h all these stao:es of trial Mi*. Fulton 
had to pass, and he felt them deeply, at times, 
indeed, painfully. During the latter years of 
his life, and while he was spending his time, his 
strength, and his money, with even prodigal pro- 
fusion for the pul)lic, an application was made to 
the legislature of New" York for the repeal of the 
law granting to Livingston and Fulton, for a 
limited period, the exclusive right to the waters 
of the state for navigation by Steam. Mr. Ful- 
ton appeared in defence of his rights with Thomas 
Addis Emmet, Esq., as his counsel. Mr. Emmet 
was the man for the occasion. After he had 
finished his argument before the House, he turned 
to Mr. Fulton, who was sitting near him, and ad- 
dressed him in words so eloquent and prophetic 
that they well deserve a place in this connec- 
tion. 

" I know and feel, and I rejoice in the convic- 
tion," he said, " that for the present, at least, your 
interests, my friend, are perfectly secure ; T)ut do 
not therefore flatter yourself that you will be in- 
volved in no future difficulties, on the same ac- 
count. Those whom I have just addressed will 
certainly decide with enlightened liberality and 



50 Recollections of 

a scrupulous regard to public faith; but their 
power and authority will pass away. Your 
present antagonist, I also hope, will become con- 
vinced by this discussion of the impropriety of 
his application, and refrain from repeating it ; but 
interest and avarice will still raise up against you 
many enemies. You rely too implicitly on the 
strength of your rights, and the sanctity of the 
obligations on which they are founded. You ex- 
pect too much fi^om your well-earned reputation, 
and the acknowledged utility to mankind of your 
life and labors. You permit your mind to be en- 
grossed with vast and noble plans for the public 
good. Your knowledge and your fortune are 
freely bestowed upon every thing that can con- 
tril)ute to the advancement of science, or of the 
elegant and useful arts. I admire and apj^laud 
you for your readiness to devote to the service 
of the public, the opulence you derive from its 
grateful remuneration. Let me remind you, how- 
ever, that you have other and closer ties. I 
know the pain I am about to give, and I see the 
tears I make you shed. But by that love I speak ; 
by that love which, like the light of heaven, is 
refracted in rays of different strength upon yoiu- 



Persons and Events. 51 

wife and children, which, when collected and 
combined, forms the sunshine of your soul; by 
that love I do adjure you, provide in time for 
those dearest objects of your care. Think not 
I would instil into your generous mind a mean 
or sordid notion ; l)ut now that wealth is passing 
through your hands, let me intreat you, hoard it 
while you have it. Artful speculators will as- 
suredly arise with patriotism on their tongues, 
and selfishness in their hearts, who may mislead 
some future legislature, by false and crafty dec- 
lamations against the prodigality of their prede- 
cessors ; who, calumniating and concealing your 
merits, will talk loudly of your monopoly ; who 
will represent it as a grievous burden on the 
community, and not a compensation for signal 
benefits; who will exaggerate your fortune, and 
propose, in the language of Marat to the French 
Convention, 'Let the scythe of equality move 
over the republic' In a moment of delusion, 
(unless some department of our government shall 
constitutionally interpose an adamantine barrier 
against national perfidy and injustice,) such men 
may give your property to the winds, and your 
person to your creditors. Then, indeed, those 



' 



62 Recollections of 

who know your worth and services, will speak of 
your downfall as of that portentous omen, which 
marked a people's degradation, and the success- 
ful crime of an intruder, 

" ' A falcon towering in his pride of place, 

Was by a mousing owl hawked at and killed.' 

" Yes, my friend ! my heart bleeds while I utter 
it ; but I have fearful forebodings that you may 
hereafter find in public faith, a broken staff for 
your sup2:)ort, and receive from public gratitude 
a broken heart for your reward." 

Such is too often the way of the world. 
High time that it should mend its ways ; for 
though justice will generally be done to great 
public benefactors at last, how often must they 
wait for it until they are laid in their graves, and 
are equally beyond the smiles and frowns of 
men. We build the tombs and garnish the sep- 
ulchres of the prophets, whom our fathers, or 
we ourselves have killed l)y injustice and in- 
gratitude, if not by calumny and cruelty. 

Whatever wrong may have been done to Ful- 
ton and others in this respect, the Magnetic Tel- 
egraph has led to a different result. Locomotion 



Persons and Events. 53 

by steam, whether on land or water, and the 
transmission of intelligence by electricity, are 
among the greatest achievements of oui- day ; and 
the memory of Fulton is not more intimately con- 
nected with the one than the name of Morse with 
the other. It was throuo^h a lonor and exhaust- 
ing conflict that Professor Morse at lensrth reach- 
ed his triumph. He had to contend against 
ridicule, jealousy, "wrongs in almost every sense ; 
but he persevered vdth a firmness of purpose not 
to be overcome, and is now reaping his reward. 
His friends have now the pleasure to see him en- 
joying the fruit of his labors in a wide spread 
fame, and in the receipt of a liberal income which 
he employs with a generous hand in promoting 
the great ends of public welfare. 



54 Recollections op 



CHAPTER IV. 

An Evening with Dr. Mason. — His Exuberance of Spirit af- 
ter Periods of Depression. — Anecdotes respecting Gouver- 
NEUK Morris, Bishop Moore, Dr. Livingston, Dr. Bisset, 
Dr. Witherspoon, Benjamin Franklin, Mr. Whitfield. — 
Comparison of Whitfield with Mason. — Chief Point of 
Difference between the two as Preachers. — Dr. Mason's 
Talent as an Expositor. 

Fkom 1811 to 1813 a warm controversy perva- 
ded tte Associate Reformed Cliurcli on tlie sub- 
ject of Free and Open Communion, as it is gen- 
erally termed. Dr. Mason's conspicuous position, 
being at the head of their Theological Seminary, 
and the example he had set in admitting to the 
Communion Table Christians of other denomi- 
nations, drew upon him animadversions from 
many of his brethren, which at times lay heavily 
on his spirits. He was the man to feel such 
things. He had both a warm and a large heart. 
Mighty as he was in battle, he had no relish for 
it. He delighted in other scenes. A child 
could not be more fond of the language and 



Persons and Events. 55 

looks of affection than Dr. Masou; and opposi- 
tion, or misrepresentation from brethren wliom lie 
loved, sometimes brought on liim the dejection 
to which he was liable. He has frequently 
come into my study, when suffering under his 
sorrow, with his eyes still wet with the tear 
which probably had been lying there as he pass- 
ed throuofh the street. One of these occasions 
was so remarkable for what passed, that I made 
a distinct note of it at the time. It was in the 
evening, and as he entered the room, holding 
out both his hands to me, I asked: 

'' Well, Doctor, how are you this eveninsr V 

11%. ^ 

He replied " Ah, hon ami^ blundering along as 
usual; yes, blundering along; that's the best I 
can say of it ; but amidst all my blundering, I 
feel that, through mercy, I still gain a little on 
the way towards Heaven." 

After poiu'ing out his whole heaii; in strains 
which it was edifying and affecting to hear, he 
felt relieved. His face biightened up, and the 
remainder of the evening was spent in great 
good humor. He was unusually full of anec- 
dotes relating to his brethren or fathers in the 
ministry. 



56 Recollections of 

He had a high respect for Bishop Moore, a 
man noted not only for the purity of his char- 
acter, but also for the retiring modesty of his 
disposition, and for the general favor in which 
he was held. As the story ran : A dinner was 
given by some one of Gouverneur Morris's friends 
when he was about departing for Europe. Bish- 
op Moore and his wife were of the party. 
Among other things that passed in conversation, 
Mr. Morris observed that he had made his will 
in prospect of going abroad ; and turning to 
Bishop Moore, said to him : 

"My reverend friend, I have bequeathed to 
you my whole stock of impudence." 

Bishop Moore rej^lied : " Sir, you are not only 
very kind, but very generous; you have left to 
me by far the largest portion of your estate." 

Mrs. Moore immediately added : " My dear, 
you have come into possession of your inheritance 
remarkably soon." 

Another instance of smart repartee he related, 
as ha^ang occurred between Dr. Livingston, of 
the Dutch Church, and Dr. Bisset, of the Episco- 
pal. .; To see the point of the reply, it should 
be remembered that over an outer door of one 



Persons and Events. 57 

of the Diitcli Churclies was a figure of an open 
Bible ; and in the centre of tlie pediment, over 
the columns in front of St. Paul's there was, and 
still is, the figure of the Apostle. The two 
reverend gentlemen chanced to meet in Broad- 
way, just opposite St. Paul's, when Dr. Living- 
ston, pointing to the statue before them, remark- 
ed to Dr. Bisset: 

"I am sorry to see, my dear Sir, that our 
Episcopal brethren have turned the Apostle out 
of doors." 

Dr. Bisset instantly replied: "If that is so 
my good friend, we have not yet shut the whole 
Bible out into the street." 

" Speaking of wit and talent for ready replies," 
he continued, " as we sometimes find them among 
the Clergy, I have often admired the way in which 
Dr. Witherspoon put down a cockney infidel on a 
journey from London to Edinburgh. They were 
travelling in a stage-coach as was the custom in 
those days, and soon after the company had set 
out, the young Englishman began to rail against 
the Scriptm-es, and to speak in high admiration 
of such heathen philosophers as Plato, Socrates, 
and others, as infinitely surpassing the wisest and 



68 Recollections of 

best men described in the Bible. And yet," he 
exclaimed, " here are all our parsons would have 
us believe that none of these great and wise men 
of former times can be admitted to Heaven, because 
they never saw the Bible. For his part, he had 
too much good sense to believe any such thing. 
He believed that the wise men of Greece and 
Rome had a better chance in the world to come, 
than half the preachers who would allow them 
no chance at all ;" and waxing warm on the sub- 
ject, he turned toward Dr. Witherspoon, who was 
sitting on a back seat in the coach, pertly asking, 
" Well, old gentleman, what do you say on the 
subject ? Do you join -with others in shutting out 
Socrates from Heaven because he was not a be- 
liever in Christianity ?" 

" Aweel," said Dr. Witherspoon, slightly using 
the Scotch accent, which he did sometimes for his 
own gratification, " I have just this to say. If I 
should be so hapj)y as to get to Heaven, which 
I hope I may ; and if you should get there too, 
which I greatly fear you will not — if we find 
Socrates there, we'll baith be glad to see him ; 
and if he is not there, the Judge will be able to 
give us a good reason for his absence, if we ask 



Persons ^AND Events. 69 

liim." The cockney found he had waked up the 
wrong passenger, and from that time till the end 
of the journey, he had little more to say about 
Socrates or any one else. " But was not the 
reply admirable ?" continued Dr. Mason. " It con- 
tained in a nut-shell all that can well be said on 
the subject." 

He had an anecdote, also, respecting Whit- 
field. The incident occun'ed when Whitfield 
was in Philadelphia, preaching and collecting 
funds in behalf of his Orphan Asylum in Geor- 
gia. Dr. Franklin was induced to go and hear 
him on one of these occasions; but having a 
due regard for his reputation as a calm philoso- 
pher, he went, determined ■ not to be moved by 
Mr. Whitfield's appeals. To be the more safe 
against yielding, and submitting to a heavy drain 
upon his purse, he jout some silver in the pocket 
of his vest, intending to give so much of it as 
he might judge proper when he heard the claims 
of the Orphan House fairly stated ; Ijut he put 
his gold into his purse, and stowed it away so 
that he could not well reach it iu a crowd. 
As Whitfield went on with his sermon, Franklin 
soon made up his mind that he would give all 



60 Recollections of 

bis silver. Not long afterwards lie was strug- 
gling for elbow-room that lie miglit get at liis 
purse and all liis gold. When the sermon was 
finished he felt a desire to enlarge his contribu- 
tion still further ; and, with strong marks of 
emotion in every feature of his face, he applied 
to a friend (a Quaker) who stood near him for 
the loan of a guinea, or whatever more he could 
spare. 

''Any other time, Benjamin," was the reply, 
" any other time thee can have whatever thee 
wants : but nothino; now ; thee seems to be not 
in thy right mind." 

The telling of this anecdote led us veiy nat- 
urally into a discussion respecting Whitfield's 
character and the secret of his success as a 
preacher of the Grospel. In the progress of the 
conversation, I repeated a remark Avhicli had 
been made to me by an aged lady who had of- 
ten heard him, and which has always appeared 
to me both graphic and just. 

"Oh, Sir," she would say, "He made me feel 
as if God was looking right into m}^ heart, and 
was about to call me before Him for judgment." 

"There," said Dr. Mason, as he turned his 



Persons and Events. 61 

deep, melted eye upon me, "there lay liis power. 
He was clothed in his Master's might, and made 
Ms hearers feel that he spoke in his Master's 
name." 

It was so, no doubt. Whitfield's manner, as 
well as his matter, tended to fill the minds of 
his hearers with a sense of God's presence. It 
was somethinsc of what Paul describes as the 
effect of Gospel preaching on the sinner in his 
days : " And thus are the secrets of his heart 
made manifest; and so falling down on his face, 
he will worship God, and report that God is in 
you of a truth." 

Whitfield's sermons ouo-ht never to have been 
issued from the press. When read, they do 
him great injustice. He was a preacher to be 
heard; and his sermons were not for the eye, 
but for the ear, accompanied by what the eye 
saw in the preacher. I have been told by 
those Avho were frequently among the crowds 
that followed him, that even when you could 
not hear a word he was saying, the mind was 
filled vnth. solemnity and awe by what Avas seen 
in the face covered with tears and raised to 
Heaven, in the hands stretched out toward his 



62 •Recollections of 

hearers, trembling as if with anxiety to embrace 
them and bring them to Christ. And when to 
this spectacle were added those tones of voice 
that sometimes seemed to thunder the words of 
God's law, and at others to soften down into 
the liquid accents of mercy and promised forgive- 
ness, we can no longer be surprised at Whit- 
field's wonderful power over his audience. Few 
speakers or hearers ever reached his level in this 
respect. He could arrest and overcome the 
learned and the unlearned; the scoffing infidel 
and the cold formalist; the very child whose 
faculties seemed just budding forth into activity, 
and the aged man who sat leaning on his staif, 
with few powers of intellect left: from the waste 
of years. 

It has been frequently said that there was a 
resemblance between Whitfield and Mason in the 
impassioned character of their eloquence; in its 
power to melt and subdue their hearers. There 
was, probably, much to warrant the observation ; 
and yet there were marked points of difference 
in the ministry of the two men. If the one 
might claim a superiority in reaching and rous- 
ing the conscience, the other was far the superi- 



Persons and Events. 63 

or in enlightening the mind. As an expositor 
of Scripture, Dr. Mason had very few equals. 
Even his tone and. manner of reading a context 
would prepare his readers to understand it ; and 
then he would seize on the leading idea of the 
inspired writer, and show all its aspects and 
bearings with a clearness which would make you 
wonder you had not seen it all before. This 
fondness for Biblical Theology, as he loved to 
call it, may have rendered him, as a Professor in 
a Theological Chair, somewhat too indifferent to 
" Systems of Divinity," as was sometimes said of 
him. But he was not to be moved from the 
plan of teaching he had laid down for himself, 
making " The Bible, the whole Bible, and nothing 
but the Bible," the true way to raise up a well 
furnished ministry to the Church. And if he 
did too much undervalue systems, we should re- 
member that it required a strong mind and a 
strong will like his, to rescue Theological Educa- 
tion from that bondage which had insensibly 
created somethinsr like another race of schoolmen 
in modern days. He greatly contributed to bring 
in the era of liberty, which gives to the Bible its 
uppropnate supremacy, and to systems their proper 



64 Recollections of 

dependency, and whicli we now find recognized 
in our best Seminaries of sacred learning. 

There was another feature in the character of 
Dr. Mason's mind, which I have rarely seen 
equalled. His thoughts were often uttered with 
a terseness and a compactness of expression that 
rendered their impression indelible on the minds 
of his hearers; and he abounded in those ema- 
nations from his brilliant intellect, quite as much 
in conversation as in preaching. 

As an instance : There was a case of sickness 
among his church-members, which had given him 
much anxiety ; and he invited me to go with him 
on a visit to the sufferer, who was then drawing 
near the grave. He was a man naturally of 
strong and warm passions; had been somewhat 
irregular in his life ; but was very j)enitent on 
his death-bed. When we had made our visit 
and were on our way home. Dr. Mason, heaving 
a sigh, observed, 

"I trust there is hope for poor L . He 

had much to contend with in his past days. He 
was of a make that exposed him to easily beset- 
ting sins. His blood seemed to be always at 
fever heat." 



Persons and Events. 65 

With an anxious look, he asked me what I 
thought of him. I expressed the hope that he 
might find peace in his end, and alluded to the 
constitutional temperament of the man, when the 
Doctor immediately re23lied: 

" Yes, yes. In forming our opinion of any 
man's spiritual condition, we must take into ac- 
count his temptations, arising from the circum- 
stances of his life and the peculiar infirmities of 
nature with which he had to contend. We must 
be careful to make due allowance for all that. 
Happily for us all, we are to be judged by Him 
who 'knoweth our frame, (repeating the words,) 
and remembereth that we are dust.'" 

He paused for a moment, and then added, 
with the earnestness which so belonged to him- 
self: 

" Indeed, I have often thought that it required 
as much grace to keep the Apostle Peter from 
knocking a man down in the street, as to make 
the Apostle John look like an angel." 

By such strong epigrammatic and original 
language he sometimes gave a volume in a single 
sentence ; the coin always bearing his own image 
and superscription. It was Mason's wherever 

6 



66 Recollections of 

you found it. It was gold, not copper, nor even 
silver; small in bulk, easily portable, but of per- 
manent intrinsic value, and capable of being 
expanded and applied to an almost infinite variety 
of uses. 



Persons and Events. 67 



CHAPTER V. 

De Witt Clinton, Stephen Van Rensselaer, James Kent, 
Abraham Van Vechten. — Sketches of their character 

AND appearance. — CONVERSATION ON RELIGIOUS SUBJECTS. 

Causes which have contributed to banish infidelity from 

THE minds of public MEN. OpiNIONS RESPECTING CaLVIN. 

Origin of Civil freedom or Government by Representation 
found in the Bible. 

The great men have not all died out. The 
race is far from being extinct. Every age of the 
world has its portion of them, and I am persuaded 
our generation has its full share. It could not 
well be otherwise. The leading men of the 
present day are the sons of those heroic spirits 
who were the fathers of the American Revolution. 
"There were giants in the earth in those days," 
and well did they perform their gigantic work. 
Their sons show by whose hands they have been 
trained, and they do honor to their lineage. 

I was strongly reminded of this yesterday at 
Gov. Clinton's, who had assembled a few friends 
to dinner and to spend the evening at his house. 
I never saw him appear to more advantage. The 



68 Recollections of 

topics introduced, and tlie company around his 
table were well calculated to draw liim out. 
Among them were Chancellor Kent, Judge Piatt, 
Abraham Van Vechten, Esq., Gen. Stephen Van 
Rensselaer, and others who have at various times 
and in various ways swayed the destinies of our 
State. They formed a fine group for the eye. 

A first glance at Clinton showed that he was 
no ordinary man. The majestic was a predom- 
inant feature of his mind and body. You saw 
it in his figure, in his manner, in his countenance, 
all indicating him as the right man to be Gov- 
ernor of the Empire State, and to create an era 
in her history that should never be forgotten. 
He has left his mark on her progress to prosper- 
ity and power too deeply engraven ever to be 
effaced. He began public life with an inheritance 
of great advantages in his favor. He was the 
son of James Clinton who had held a high com- 
mand in the armies of the Revolution; and he 
was a nephew of George Clinton, who had ren- 
dered important services both in the armies and in 
the councils of the nation during that memorable 
struggle, and was afterwards, for several terms of 
office. Governor of the State of New York, much re- 



Persons axd Events. 69 

spected for the wise policy of liis cadministration. 
The name of Clinton had thus become a kind of 
household word in the history of the State, when 
De Witt Clinton came into office as her chief magis- 
trate; and well did he employ the influence he 
derived from it to promote her best interests. 
Posterity will award to him the chief credit of 
the Erie Canal, whatever may have been said or 
done during his life by the small men who were 
envious of his fame. It is idle to reply that 
others thought of the work and talked of it before 
him. He was the man who took it up and 
carried it through, staking his reputation on his 
success; and no one could be mth him long enough 
to see the large scale on which his conceptions 
were formed, and not feel persuaded that he was 
just the statesman for such a noble work. 

Gen. Van Rensselaer was a fine model of the 
Christian gentleman. Not only were his manners 
courteous and aifable, but there was an habitual 
expression of kindness and good will in his Ian- 
guage and looks that seemed never to forsake 
him. His judgment was eminently sound and 
discriminating, both as to men and things; and 
it always told powerfully on behalf of any meas- 



70 Recollections of 

ure wlien it was known that Gen. Van Rensse- 
laer was in favor of it. Nor did he ever con- 
fine his approbation to mere words. His large 
fortune was employed with a liberal hand to 
promote every object, whether in Church or State, 
which his judgment approved. He was the 
early friend of the internal improvements which 
have added so greatly to the resources of the 
Commonwealth. His cordial approbation of 
the Erie Canal when first proposed, was of 
great importance to the successful issue of the 
enterprise. Especially in its infancy, it needed 
just that influence which his reputation for sound 
judgment was able to give it. It was at first 
ridiculed by many as a great ditch, in which both 
the credit and resources of the State would be 
buried. But he stood by it as its fast friend 
till he saw it completed, and acknowledged as a 
stream of wealth to the City and State of New 
York. Whatever credit may be due to Gov. Clin- 
ton in the work, he was always ready to acknowl- 
edge how deeply he was indebted to Gen. Van 
Rensselaer for his hearty and uniform support. 

Chancellor Kent's eye was always radiant with 
clear intelligence. There was nothing dim or in- 



Persons and Events. 71 

animate about him. Every lineament was strongly 
defined. On whatever subject lie spoke, you saw 
that he had at his command a vast body of 
thought ; and with a simplicity of manner, a 
quickness and agility in all his movements almost 
juvenile, he was a delightful comj^anion, especially 
when he let his mind have full play. 

The various and high positions in his profes- 
sion which he had reached, gave him great ce- 
lebrity as a lawyer. 

Mr. Van Vechten was a fine specimen of a 
class whom he loved to represent. If he was 
somewhat heavy in his appearance, and slow in 
his movements, he had all the staid solidity and 
strength which marked the Hollanders in their 
best days, and he never appeared, either in 
public or private, without commanding universal 
respect. 

The conversation was free and general, turn- 
ing very much on religious subjects. The iuquii'y 
was started by Gov. Clinton, how we are to ac- 
count for the great change respecting the truth 
of Christianity which has taken place of late 
years in the minds of the educated classes, and 
especially among public men. 



72 Recollections of 

" Wliat ai'e the main causes," lie asked, " wliich 
have produced it or brought it about?" 

" As to the fact," said Chancellor Kent, " there 
is no doubt, there can be no doubt. I remember," 
he added, " that in my younger days there were 
very few professional men that were not infidels, 
or at least so far inclined to infidelity that they 
could not be called believers in the truth of the 
Bible. What has led to the change?" 

Although the question was addressed imme- 
diately to me, I was desirous to learn the views 
of those around me, and replied that I should 
like to hear how the gentlemen themselves would 
answer the question. 

Chancellor Kent at once said, " One great 
reason of it is with the ministers of the Gospel 
themselves. As a profession, they are better 
qualified for their work than they were formerly. 
Notwithstanding the venerable names of Edwards, 
Davies, and some others, who are to be had in 
all reverence for their learning and ability, take 
the clergy as a class, and they were not, forty 
or fifty years ago, what they are now. Pains are 
taken to educate ministers for their work, and to 
raise them more to a level with educated minds 



Persons and Events. 73 

in other professions. If thinking men are to 
embrace Christianity, our understandino-s, as well 
as our consciences, must be addressed. We must 
have argument as well as exhortation ; and I be- 
lieve one great reason which has contributed to 
place educated men on the right side of the 
question, is that we find our clergj^ able to give 
us both ; to act like Paul, who reasoned concern- 
ing righteousness, temperance, and judgment to 
come, while he also rebuked with all long suffer- 
ing and doctrine. When the great Apostle had 
occasion to preach before the men of Athens, he 
showed himself a man of learning, and preached 
in a way that constrained the Athenians to hear 
him with respect." 

" There is, no doubt, much in that," said Mr. 
Van Vechten. "An intelligent ministry for in- 
telligent hearers is indispensable, and the founders 
of theological seminaries which have recently 
been established in our country, deserve all praise 
as wise men and good Christians. They begin at 
the foundation. We have as good materials 
in this country for making an able ministry as 
can be found in any other. But we must pro- 
vide for makins; them, and not leave them in the 



74 Recollections of 

raw material. There is an emulation springing up 
in this matter among the different Denominations, 
which is among the best signs of the times." 

" These considerations all speak to the point," 
said Gov. Clinton, "and I will add another rea- 
son which I think has operated to j)roduce the 
happy result. It is the more frequent and friendly 
intercourse which now subsists between the clergy 
and the more intelligent classes of the laity. 
Although in former times we had such able men 
among the American clergy as have been named, 
they seem to have been too much secluded from 
mankind. The consequence was injurious to 
themselves ; for to a clergyman whose business it 
is to act on the human mind, acquaintance with 
men is as important in its place as acquaintance 
with the truth he is to preach to them. But 
it was still more injurious to men of cultivated 
minds, on whom their high attainments might 
have enabled them to exercise a salutary influence. 
They were too much left to contemplate religion 
only as it was presented to them in their inter- 
course with men far inferior to themselves in tal- 
ent, learning, and general cultivation. Indeed," 
he added, with much earnestness, " while I would 



A 



Persons and Events. 75 

not have a pastor of tlie most brilliant attainments 
neglect the humblest member of his flock, I would 
also have him consider all men of minds like his 
own entitled to a portion of his pastoral care. 
Let him take every fit opportunity to bring them 
into active sympathy with himself in the wide 
fields of knowledge, and he will soon find how 
much good he may do them as a minister of the 
Gospel. In this respect our Bible Society Anni- 
versaries, and such occasions, are of great service. 
They bring leading clergymen and leading lay- 
men together on the same platform, to speak and 
consult on the same great subjects ; and on both 
sides we gain confidence in each other by becom- 
ing better acquainted with each other." 

" We should not forget another cause," he 
went on to say, " which has greatly contributed 
to the change. The twenty or thirty years which 
spread over the latter part of the last century 
and beginning of the present, have given demon- 
stration of the a^vful results to which infidelity 
leads. Facts which speak for themselves, and 
too loudly to be disregarded, have shown that 
infidelity makes war on the social and civil 
welfare of man, as well as on his eternal safety. 



76 Recollections op 

No man can read tlie history of France during 
her Revolution, and the convulsions following it, 
without a deep conviction that the horrors which 
then shocked the civilized world sprung mainly 
from the absence of a religious sentiment in the 
nation. No thinking man can contemplate such 
atrocities without concluding;: that the tree is evil 
which produces such evil fruit. I have sometimes 
thought that the Almighty seemed to have al- 
lowed that deluge of guilt and misery to over- 
spread France and other nations, in order to show 
them in frightful clearness what must be the con- 
sequence of that general renunciation of Christian- 
ity into which the distinguished men of the times 
were so inclined to fall. It was enough, if any 
thing could be enough, to make every wise man 
pause and turn back. It was the sight of a 
whirlwind reaped by those who had sowed the 
wind. 

" But," he continued, " here is another thought 
that has often presented itself to my mind. So 
far as I know, when men of enlarged and dis- 
ciplined minds have renounced infidelity and em- 
braced Christianity, they have very generally be- 
come what is usually called evangelical Christians." 



Persons and Events. 77 

r 

"Yes, it is so," was observed by several in 
tlie company; and name after name being given 
in proof of it, I was asked, " WJiy is it that such 
men usually embrace evangelical doctrines?" I 
replied : 

"It is because they have studied the subject 
carefully. We must suppose that their change 
from infidelity to faith in the Bible as an in- 
spired book, is the result of thoughtful investiga- 
tion; and in my view, no man can study the 
Bible in the spirit of sound philosophy, and not 
find in it as its prominent teachings, what are 
usually termed the doctrines of grace." 

'* You remind me," said Chancellor Kent, " of 
a story respecting Lord Bolingbroke and Dr. 
Church. I can repeat it word for word, as 1 
have read it." 

" As the story runs," he continued, " Lord 
Bolingbroke was one day sitting in his house, 
reading Calvin's Institutes, when he received 
a morning visit from Dr. Church. After the 
usual salutations, he asked the Doctor if he could 
guess what the book was, which then lay before 
him; 'and which,' (added his Lordship,) 'I have 
been studying.' 'No, really, my lord, I cannot,' 



78 Recollections op 

said the Doctor. 'It is Calvin's Institutes,' 
replied Bolingbroke ; ' what do you think of 
these matters, Doctor V ' Oh, my lord, we don't 
think about such antiquated stuff; we teach the 
plain doctrines of virtue and morality, and have 
long laid aside those abstruse points about grace.' 
' Mark my words, Doctor,' (said Bolingbroke,) 
'you know I don't believe the Bible to be a di- 
vine revelation ; but they who do, can never 
defend it on any principle but the doctrine of 
grace. To say truth, I have at times been al- 
most persuaded to believe it upon this view of 
things; and there is one argument which has 
gone very far with me, in behalf of its authen- 
ticity, which is, that the belief in it exists upon 
earth, even when committed to the care of such 
as you, who pretend to believe it, and yet deny 
the only principles upon which it is defensible.' " 

"When he had finished the story, he added, 
" I cannot vouch for the truth of the anecdote ; 
but I will say if it is not true, it ought to be." 

"I see no reason to question it," said Gov. 
Clinton. " I consider John Calvin as one of the 
greatest of men, and to whom full justice has 
scarcely been rendered even at this late day. 



Persons and Events. 79 

Great men who act as reformers or projectors 
very seldom receive their just reward while they 
live. On the contrary, they usually have to en- 
counter opposition, misrepresentation, and re- 
proach. In some cases justice is rendered soon 
after they are in their graves, when they can no 
longer be j^ursued from motives of personal pique 
or jealousy; but in other cases they and their 
labors are not fully appreciated till centuries after 
their death. The seed they have sown does not 
produce its fully ripe fruit till generation after 
generation has passed by. Such a reformer was 
John Calvin. I am not going to say whether 
his theology might or might not be improved. 
Nor do I say he w^as always right in his views 
or his conduct. No mere man is always right. 

" But when you consider what he did, and what 
he had to encounter when doing it, Calvin is 
seen to be a wonderful man. Indeed, gentle- 
men," he added, "we of the laity must admit 
that the aggregate of great intellect found among 
the clergy, exceeds that of any other profession. 
Law has its profound men, medicine has its skil- 
ful men, but in men of comprehensive and ele- 
vated understanding, who can grasp and elucidate 



80 Recollections of 

great questions, divinity outnumbers both law and 
medicine. President Edwards I consider as a 
host in himself. His writings analyze, while they 
defend, the doctrines of the Bil)le ; and he has so 
interwoven theology with sound philosophy, that 
you can no more resist his reasoning than you 
can overthrow the clearest demonstration in Euclid. 
What clean work, for instance, has he made of 
his opponents in his Treatise on Original Sin. 
He is there the inductive philosopher to an ex- 
tent that would have gratified Lord Bacon to his 
heart's content." 

Acknowledging, as I best mighty the kind 
manner in which he had spoken of the clergy, I 
observed that no one could refuse them the cred- 
it of having formed the great majority in the 
array of gifted spirits who unchained the intellect 
of Europe at the time of the Reformation; and 
that, especially in Great Britain, the high charac- 
ter of divines in the days of Elizabeth, was far 
from being lost at the present day. 

" Certainly," he replied ; " and when I spoke in 
such terms of commendation respecting an Amer- 
ican divine, I would not be considered as under- 
rating the great lights of the Church in England 



Persons and Events. 81 

and Scotland, or on tlie Continent of Europe. 
But," he continued, " when I reflect ^vhat a great 
falling off in sound theology has taken place in 
Germany and Holland during the last hundred 
years, and compare it with the noble army of 
divines that have arisen during this period in Eng- 
land, Scotland, and America, I feel that if the 
nations on the European Continent took the lead 
in introducing the Protestant Reformation, Eng- 
land, Scotland, and America have become, and 
will remain, the great bulwark and defence of 
the Protestant faith." 

" All riixht, all ris-ht !" exclaimed Chancellor 

7 O 

Kent. " But let us return to Calvin. I have 
been amused at times to see how some men Avill 
run down John Calvin, who are very high in their 
praises of ' the judicious Hooker,' as they call him. 
And yet, if I am not mistaken, Hooker has com- 
mended Calvin as one of the best theoloo-ians the 
world ever saw." Turning to me he asked, " Is it 
not so?" 

I answered, that no one could bestow higher 
praise on Calvin than we find coming from Hooker ; 
and that he not only places him first among French 
divines, but also pronounces him entitled to honor 



82 Recollections of 

througliout the world, both for the system of the- 
ology contained in his Institutes, and for his Com- 
mentaries on the Bible.* 

" Hooker's testimony should certainly be view- 
ed as very decisive," said Gov. Clinton. "Per- 
haps I have admired Calvin the more as he ap- 
pears to me to have taught, on the subject of 
government, the leading principles of freedom and 
popular rights, and with such clearness of view, 
that I have sometimes wondered where he got 
them." 

" You need not wonder," I replied. " If you 
mean such principles of government as the choice 
of rulers by the people to be ruled, he got them 
from the Bible. This he could find not only 
in the polity of the Church in Apostolic times, 
but he found it also in the Old Testament, as 
the cardinal principle on which Moses organized 

* The following is Hooker's language : " I think him (Calvin) incom- 
parably the wisest man that ever the French Church bad since the hour 
it enjoyed him. Though thousands were debtors to him, as touching 
divine knowledge, yet he to none, only to God, the author of that 
most blessed portion, the Book of Life." " Two things there are which 
have deservedly procured for him honor throughout the world ; the 
one, his exceeding pains in composing the Institutes of the Christian 
Religion; the other, his no less industrious travails for exposition of 
Holy Scripture according to the same Institutes." 



Persons and Events. 83 

a government for the commonwealth of the He- 
brews." 

With his usual grave manner, Mr. Van Vech- 
ten asked, " How do you make that out ? I knew 
that he could find it in the Acts of the Apostles, 
but I never saw it in the Pentateuch." 

I referred to the passages in Exodus and 
Deuteronomy bearing on the question, and, while 
I was speaking, could not help noticing the ex- 
pression of eager interest which Gov. Clinton's 
face assumed. 

"There it is, there it is, Mr. Van Vechten," 
he exclaimed, before I had well finished ; *' as 
plainly as you ever found law in Blackstone, there 
you find in Moses the great principle of govern- 
ment by representation; rulers chosen by the 
people ruled as an acknowledged constituency. 
And here we see that the distinguishing feature 
in free government which many have claimed 
as the discovery of modern days, was known to 
Moses, and by Moses recognized and enacted as 
a part of constitutional law in the Hebrew State. 
Gentlemen," he added with great animation, "I 
believe the world will never cease finding new 
evidences of the divine inspiration of the Bible ; 



84 Recollections of 

and just as knowledge at large advances, do these 
evidences multiply. It is no matter wliat the 
science may be ; it may be the science of govern- 
ment, or the science of astronomy, or the science 
of physiology, just according as they are improved 
or thoroughly understood, they all seem in their 
respective places to bring fresh testimony to the 
divinity of that one book. ■ Compare the Bible 
in this respect with other works. Take Milton's 
'Paradise Lost;' you learn the whole proofs of 
its authorship in an hour, and the question is 
settled. There is no more to be said about it. 
On the other hand, take the " Letters of Junius ;" 
you pursue the question of their authorship day 
after day, and find nothing reliable. The whole 
subject seems more and more confused and uncer- 
tain as you proceed. But go to the Bible, and 
you find on the very face of the book, argument 
plain and unanswerable, showing who is its 
author. You see matter and manner before you 
which could have emanated from no finite mind. 
And then as you go further on in the volume 
itself, and as time goes on bringing to light new 
discoveries in the world of nature, the evidence 
still rolls up higher and higher, no previous ar- 



Persons and Events. 85 

guinent lost or weakened by the discoveries of 
others that are new, but all combining to show 
in greater strength that the book comes from the 
great fountain of knowledge and mercy. Can any 
thing be more delightful or satisfying than to 
pursue a chain of evidence that in this way bright- 
ens and widens with every step we take in fol- 
lowing it?" 

As we rode home, Gen. Van Rensselaer ex- 
pressed the high gratification he had enjoyed from 
the conversation of the evening, and he asked me 
to make a memorandum of it. I have done so 
to the best of my recollection. 



86 Recollections of 



CHAPTER VI. 

Interview with Col. Aaron Burr. — Generally avoided by his 

FORMER acquaintances AFTER HIS RETURN FROM EuROPE. 

Interest felt on his beitalf on account of his religious 

parentage. his colloquial powers. his sensibility at 

the remembrance of his parents. sorrow over the death 

of his daughter. his resentment at feeling himself so 

generally proscribed. his despondency as to himself. 

His DEATH. 

I HAVE just passed througli a remarkable scene, 
in whicli I have been an actor, with the famous 
Col. Aaron Burr. 

Since this gentleman's return from Europe, he 
has resided in our city, and has pursued his pro- 
fession as a lawyer. His antecedents, in the 
death of Gen. Hamilton, and other unfavorable 
events of his history, combined with a general 
belief that his profligacy is much the same as it 
was in his former days, have kept the great ma- 
jority of our respectable citizens aloof from him. 
And yet it seems there are those who think of 
him with interest and sympathy, chiefly on ac- 
count of his religious parentage. 

There is a Society in the city, comprising 



Persons and Events. 87 

many of our most intelligent Christian ladies, not 
only from different cliurclies, but from different 
denominations, who have recently made the case 
of Col. Bun' the subject of conversation among 
themselves, and of special prayer. They have 
reminded each other that he is the grandson of 
the excellent and distinguished Jonathan Edwards, 
" whose praise is in all the churches ;" that he is 
the son of a pious father and mother, who were 
taken from him by death, leaving him an orphan 
in his infancy ; and, though he Jias long led an 
abandoned life, and apparently turned his back 
on the God of his fathers, yet these pious, pray- 
ing ladies say they cannot but ho2:>e that yet 
there may be mercy in store for him, as " the 
seed of the ris^hteous.'' To their credit be it 
said, Christian mothers are always inclined to take 
a strong hold of the promises to parents on be- 
half of their children, and, in the instance of 
such a man as Col. Burr, they think there is 
something to be hoped from the assurance — " I 
will be a God to thee and to thy seed after 
thee." 

But here the question arose, what means 
should be used on his behalf? How is he to be 



■^ 



88 Recollections of 

readied ? He is never seen in a cliui'cli, where 
lie miglit be subdued by the power of a preach- 
ed Gospel. He is found in no religious society ; 
on the contrary, all his associations and accom. 
paniments seem to be of a character to remove 
him from any religious influences. 

It seems the ladies came, at length, to the 
conclusion, that some one of the clergy in the 
city should be selected to call upon him,^ and 
make a serious and solemn appeal to him on the 
subject of his responsibilities, and the sin of his 
past and present mode of life. Last Tuesday 

mornino; Mrs. N and Mrs. J called 

to inform me that, after a full discussion, the 
ladies had unanimously fixed on me as the cler- 
gyman who should be requested to undertake the 
delicate and difficult task. I objected to the 
selection, as I was far from being the oldest or 
best known among the clergy of the city. But 
I soon found they had come determined not to be 
denied, and my respect for their well-known piety 
and intelligence led me to promise that I would 
comply with their request as I best could, in the 
hope that, if no good was done, at least no harm 
could result. I have made my visit, and God 



Persons and Events. 89 

only knows wliat impression may have been made 
on the mind of the man ; but it certainly became, 
at last, a most affecting scene to both of us. 

It was in the evening that I called on him. 
He was at tea ; and yet, when I sent in my name, 
he at once met me in the hall and asked me 
into his parlor, expressing, with much politeness, 
his pleasure in seeing me; all which would, per- 
haps, have been expected by those who were ac- 
quainted with his habitual comity. He invited 
me to join him in a cup of what he said was, 
to him, "tired Nature's sweet restorer." Tea, he 
added, was every thing to him, and that he often 
went on sipping it through a whole evening. I 
hoped he would not break in upon this habit be- 
cause I hapjDened to be present, and, accordingly, 
tea was before us during the greater part of our 
conversation. Perhaps it may have rendered our 
interview the more free and easy ; for very free 
it certainly was. I kept nothing back; neither 
did he, so far as I could judge. 

I am not surprised at the influence Col. Burr 
is said always to acquire over those with whom* 
he converses. There is a charm, a fascination, 
in his colloquial powers that I have never seen 



1 



90 Recollections of 

surpassed, if equalled. If he recounts his trav- 
els, there is a graphic distinctness in his descrip- 
tion of cities and scenery, that takes you at once 
to the places; if he tells you of his intercourse 
with distinguished men, he gives you a picture 
of their appearance, their tones of voice, their 
whole manner, so that you see them before you 
and hear them speak ; and in such exhibition of 
men and things, he was exceedingly interesting 
during the early part of our interview. 

At length I took occasion to observe that as 
he was again in New York, it was seen that his 
interest in scenes abroad had not entirely wean- 
ed his mind from his own country, and that he 
might be pleased to know that there were friends 
who took a deep interest in his welfare, where 
he would, perhaps, not be likely to expect it. 
He paused and looked at me with an eager ex- 
pression of face, evidently expecting from me some 
further explanation of my remark. I at once 
stated to him the occasion and object of my visit, 
and at whose request it was made. While I 
was speaking, and, no doubt, with considerable 
emotion on my own part, he seemed completely 
absorbed in his attention to what I was saying. 



Persons and Events. 91 

and when I paused, lie exclaimed, " Do I under- 
stand you rightly ? Do you say that these 
Christian ladies — and with the husbands of some 
among them I have formerly been acquainted — 
have thought of Aaron Buit with kindness, and 
have made me a subject of their prayers for 
Divine mercy on my behalf? It is what I little 
expected; and, as a gentleman, I thank them for 
their kind remembrance of me. Be so good as 
to assure them of i . But, sir, I fear it is all 
in vain. I fear they are asking Heaven for what 
Heaven has not in store for me." 

"They do not take that view of j^our case, 
Col. Burr," I replied; "and now that we are so 
singularly thrown together, will you allow me 
to speak plainly, though I hope kindly, on the 
subject r 

"Certainly, certainly, most certainly," he an- 
swered, with strong emphasis ; " why should I 
not? You can have but one motive in holding 
this interview. Let me hear what you would 
say. You have met me with a look of kind- 
ness; you speak to me in tones of kindness. I 
do not so often meet with this fi'om gentlemen 
in New- York as to cast it behind me. Speak 



92 Recollections of 

plainly to me, and I will speak plainly to 
you." 

I at once asked, " Where am I to begin ? 
Must I inquire, in the words of Paul, 'King 
Agrippa, believest tkou the prophets V And may 
I add, ' I know that thou believest V Do you 
believe in the truth and inspiration of the 
Bible ? 

He replied, " I suppose I am generally con- 
sidered an infidel. But I am not an infidel, 
in the proper sense of the word. I will not so 
disparage my own power to judge of evidence 'as 
to deny that the Bible is true. The only real 
infidel is the man who does not think, and be- 
cause he is afraid to think. We will pro- 
ceed on the supposition that the Bible is to 
be believed." 

I expressed my pleasure at hearing him say 
so ; and upon alluding to his religious ancestry, 
through many generations, I dwelt especially on 
the deep piety of his mother, and on her hopes 
and anxieties for him at his birth, when he was 
first placed in her arms, and her prayers that the 
mantle of the father might fall upon the son. I 
refeiTed to his extreme illness when he was yet 



1 



Persons and Events. 93 

in infancy, to tlie agony wliich liis mother felt 
at the thought that she would then have to part 
vrith him, and to the strong effort of her faith 
when she endeavored to surrender him to God, 
in the hope that whether he should die or live, 
she might meet him in heaven. I alluded, also, 
to the persevering efforts made by ministers of 
the Gospel, when he had become an orphan, to 
train him up in the way he should go ; and re- 
marked that he well knew how far he had sur- 
rendered himself to evil courses, and in what utter 
forgetfulness of God his whole life had been 
spent. 

As I dwelt on these topics, especially when I 
spoke of his mother, his agitation became intense. 
He shook like a leaf, and his breast heaved 
as though it could not contain his swelling 
emotions. 

After a pause, perhaps a minute or two, during 
which I waited for him to speak, he said, A^ith 
quite a mild tone, " Perha])s you would like to 
proceed. You know we are to speak without 
restraint. I take it all well, for I know it is 
well meant." 

I answered that there was another topic to 



94 Recollections of 

wliicli I wished to allude, and yet I scarcely knew 
how to name it. 

"I wish to hear you," he replied. 

I then asked, " Do you not feel that there is 
some resemblance between yourself and the sin- 
ning Manassah, who forsook the God of his fa- 
thers, and as a punishment for his sin lost his 
former high place, and was scourged with thorns 
to awake him to a sense of his apostasy? And 
has not a judgment lighted upon you to which 
even Manassah may have been a stranger ? Col. 
Burr, I have spoken of your parents. Let me 
allude to your child, your only child, your be- 
loved daughter. Where is she ?* Is there no 
voice that speaks to you from the deep, deep 
sea, warning you, entreating you to turn, and 
seek forgiveness through that blood which cleans- 
eth from all sin? These multiplied judgments 
have a voice that surely cannot be misunder- 
stood." 

When Colonel Burr arrived in America, his daughter, and only 
child, Mrs. Ashton, anxious to meet her father, embarked, in Decem- 
ber, 1812, from South Carolina, in a pilot-boat distinguished for its 
speed as a sailer, bound to New York. The vessel was never heard 
of after leaving port. It was supposed that she foundered in a gale 
which swept the whole coast that winter, and that all on board 
perished. 



Persons and Events. 95 

When I tlius alluded to Hs daughter and her 
tragical end, his heartrending moans and gushing 
tears so overcame me that I felt little inclined 
to proceed further at the time. There was a long 
pause, and he at length observed : 

" You are doing nothing more than your duty, 
and I am the more pleased with you for doing it 
so fully. This is a new scene for me. You have 
opened fountains that have long been diy, and 
that, perhaps, I may have thought were dried 
up forever. 

"It is true, it is true," he added, "judgments 
have followed me for years — judgments in every 
form, in the heaviest forms, till I am left alone, 
alone of all that loved me as father or near 
relative. There is a desolation here," he added, 
laying his hand on his heart, " that none but the 
Searcher of hearts can understand." 

" I am aware," I replied, " of the desolate 
hearthstone that meets your eye. Is there no 
significance in that aspect of your sorrows 
which points out a sin for which you should 
humble yourself before God?" 

As I made the remark his eye suddenly as- 
sumed a fierce glare, but it soon passed away; 



96 Recollections of 

and lie went on, witli a saddened expression of 
look and voice, and asked, "What would you 
have me do ? How and where would you have 
me turn?" 

I answered, " Turn to Him who is exalted as a 
Prince and a Saviour to give repentance to Israel 
and forgiveness of sins, and who gave them even 
to the men by whose wicked hands He was cru- 
cified and slain. Take the example of the Pro- 
digal, who, under a sense of his bereavements 
and destitution, said, ' I will arise and go to my 
father, and will say unto him, Father, I have 
sinned against Heaven, and before thee.' Seek 
His favor in the ordinances of His grace, wor- 
shipping Him in the temples where His Gospel 
is ]3reached and His spirit given." 

As I was here proceeding, he suddenly inter- 
rupted me, saying, "You don't seem to know 
how I am viewed by the religious public, or by 
those who resort to your churches. Where is 
there a man amons; all such with whom I would 
be willing to meet, and who would welcome me 
into his pew ? Of your own congregation, would 
J. H., or J. S., or H, I. W., give me a seat ? 
These are our merchant princes — men who give 



Persons and Events. 97 

tone to Wall street, who fix tlie standard of 
mercantile morals in our city. Would they 
make Aaron Burr a \yelcome visitor to your 
church? Rather, indeed, I may ask, would you 
yourself do so ? How would you feel walking up 
the aisle with me, and opening your pe^v-door 
for my entrance?" 

I instantly replied that I wished he would 
try me, adding that such a thing would give me 
pleasure. 

" Then," he replied, " you would indulge your 
feelings of kindness at the expense of your use- 
fulness as the minister of your congregation. 
Do you believe that such gentlemen as I have 
named would be pleased, rather that they would 
not be highly displeased, at seeing you do any 
thing of the kind?" 

A new train of sentiment seemed to arise in 
his mind as he was thus dwelling on the sen- 
tence of exclusion which he considered as having 
been passed upon him. He arose from his 
chair, paced the room, and, with a haughty in- 
dignation and a loud voice, exclaimed : 

"There are men who join in this system of 
proscription, who ought to be well aware that I 



1 



98 Recollections of 

know enough of them and their condition to hurl 
them into poverty, if I would only undertake the 
task. I could strip them of the very houses in 
which they and their families live, and turn them 
into the street. The title to much of the prop- 
erty now held by the rich men of our city would 
not bear to be sifted. I know all about it ; and 
I may be induced some day to show what I am 
able to do in the matter." 

I observed that I was not competent to 
judge of such questions, and that, besides, they 
were far removed from the object of my visit. 
He instantly resumed his seat, and with that su- 
avity of manner peculiarly his own, he apologized 
for the course his thoughts had taken, adding 
that his spirit felt so chafed at times, by the 
circumstances in which he found himself, that he 
was not always as self-possessed as he could de- 
sire. "I once," he added, "had the credit of 
such self-possession that nothing could disturb 
or overthrow it. I have less of it now. Age 
and sorrow combined wear away the strength of 
the strongest." 

I replied that there is but one balm for a 
lacerated and sore heart, but one physician that 



Persons and Events. 99 

can heal it ; and I went on at considerable length, 
endeavoring to set before him the fulness of the 
redemption that is by Jesus Christ ; the free invi- 
tation which the Gospel addresses to all sinners, 
to the chief of sinners ; and how utterly without 
excuse all are left who reject so free an offer 
of so precious a salvation." 

He seemed to hear me patiently and attentive- 
ly, and observed, in reply : " This is all true, and 
how strongly it reminds me of my early days ! It 
seems as if I heard good Dr. Bellamy again speak- 
ing to me. But I fear such appeals will have as 
little effect upon the old man as they had on the 
wayward youth. If there is any such good yet 
before me, as you, sir, seem to desire, it must reach 
me at last in virtue of my birth ft'om religious 
parentage, which you justly observed it has been 
my lot to have, as a birthright." 

It had now become late in the evening, and I 
arose to bid him good-by. He looked at me very 
steadfastly, and observed : " I am far from being 
wearied of this conversation. On the contrary, I 
^vill preserve a grateful recollection of it. I sin- 
cerely thank you for this visit, and, if it does me 
no good, I am anxious it should do you no hann. 



100 Recollections of 

1 hope that you will not mistake my motive in 
what I am about to say. I know who some of the 
men are to whom you sustain intimate relations- 
They entertain the most unfavorable opinion of me 
in every respect, and would not fail to mark it 
against every one who would treat me with any 
open avowal of good-will or civility. It would 
be to your detriment if such men should see you 
accost me in the public street, with the expression 
of regard that your kindness might prompt. 
When we meet in any of our great thoroughfares, 
it is best that we should not see each other. Do 
you understand me?" he asked. 

I replied that I fully appreciated his motives, 
though I could not see the necessity for the re- 
quest; but that, of course, I should regulate my 
conduct in the matter by his wishes. 

"Excuse me," he said, "I am the best judge." 

He accompanied me to the door, and, as we 
bade good-night, he offered me his hand; it was 
cold, as though he had been a corpse. I left 
him with my heart heavy and sad. What may 
have been the state of his own, the Searcher of 
all hearts best knows. 

After an interview like this, I was not likely 



Persons and Events. 101 

soon to forget Col. Burr, thougli I saw him but 
seldom. He continued for several years to re- 
side in New York, with more or less practice in 
his profession ; but was finally struck* with pa- 
ralysis while walking in the street, and, after a 
brief interval, was taken to Staten Island, where 
he died in obscurity, few, if any, to drop a tear 
over his remains. He was visited, on his death- 
bed, by a minister of the Gospel, \. ho placed be- 
fore him the great truth that " Christ Jesus came 
into the world to save sinners." With what 
effect, is a question which must be left to the 
Judge of all, whose "judgments are true and 
righteous altogether." 

Such reverses as overtook Col. Burr are very 
marked and unusual. He had been once a 
leading man among the leading men of our State 
He had reached the Vice-Presidency of the Uni- 
ted States, and in that honorable office had pre- 
sided over the Senate, when it comprised many of 
the first men of the nation. And yet, from this 
high eminence in public esteem, how low did he 
sink ! During his sojourn in foreign countries, 
it is said, he was often in such poverty as to be 
on the eve of beg-orins: his bread. When he 



102 Recollections of 

ventured back to his native land, the scene of 
Ms former greatness and honors, his return was 
considered as a public grievance, and he was 
shunned Jby many as a culprit, whose presence 
contaminated the very air around him. 

What a lesson ! The crime which was most 
habitually predominant in the life of Col. Burr 
is so well known that there can be no occasion 
to mention it, and his example may well be 
quoted " to point a moral," if not to " adorn a 
tale." 



1 



Persons and Events. 10^ 



CHAPTER VII. 

Col. Henry Rutgers — His character. — His devotion to the 

CAUSE of the country IN THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. HiS 

liberality TO THE CAUSE OF RELIGION. STRIKING INCIDENT 

SHOWING HIS WISE JUDGMENT IN DEEDS OF BENEVOLENCE. 

Duty of our merchants and others to young men in theik 

EMPLOY. 

A FEW days since we committed to the grave 
the remains of Col. Henry Rutgers. He had 
lived to a good old age, and was not only 
venerable in years, but universally respected and 
beloved for his active philanthropy, his pure pa- 
triotism, and his devoted piety. He left a high 
record in both Church and State. In his early 
days, he and his family devoted themselves to 
the cause of the country in the Revolutionary 
War; and he often referred to the circumstance, 
though with much tenderness, yet with a feeling 
of exultation, that his brother Herman was the 
first American that fell at the battle of Long 
Island. The family property was a farm in the 
eastern section of the city, including the greater 



104 Recollections of 

part of wliat is now known as the Seventh 
ward; and I remember bis telling me, that 
when flying from his home, at the approach of 
the British to take possession of the city, as he 
reached a hill overlooking his estate, he turned and 
took what he thought might be a last survey 
of it, and said to himself, "If all must go, and 
my life with it, as the price of freedom to my 
country, I will make the sacrifice freely and 
without hesitation." 

Happily, the sacrifice was not required. After 
having served as an officer during the war, he 
returned to his estate, and enjoyed it through a 
long and useful life. 

His religion was as conspicuous as his patriot- 
ism. He devoted much of his time and of his 
large means to promote the cause of Christiani- 
ty, and he may well be acknowledged as the 
founder of two churches in our city, that were 
long known for their great strength and useful- 
ness. 

Much that he did, however, he loved to ac- 
complish without show or the knowledge of the 
public. Indeed, it was one of his leading aims 
"to do his alms in secret, not letting his left 



Persons and Events. 105 

hand know what his right hand did." His pas- 
tor, Eev. Dr. McMunay, has just related to me a 
very striking incident, showing how mueli good 
he accomplished during his long life, of which 
none knew but himself, his Master, and the 
receivers of his bounty. 

It appears that many years ago, in the middle 
of a severely cold winter night. Colonel Rutgers 
was awaked by a violent rapping at the door, 
which startled the whole household. A servant 
went down stairs to see what could be wanted 
at so unseasonable an hour, when he found on 
the steps a stranger, who said that he had call- 
ed to see Colonel Rutgers. When told that he 
could not see the Colonel at that time of night, 
and the servant was about shutting the door in 
his face, he pressed forward, and declared that 
he would not leave the house alive unless he 
could see him ; that he must and would see 
him, if he had to force his way into his bed- 
chamber; that it was a matter of life and 
death, and that no denial in the case would or 
could be taken. The door being partly open, 
Colonel Rutgers heard the excited language of 
the man, and, judging from the tones of the 



106 Recollections of 

speaker, that he was not intoxicated, or some 
idle ruffian who intended mischief, he told the 
servant to let the man come into the house, and 
that he would come down to see him. When 
they entered the room together, the Colonel saw 
before him a young man of prepossessing ap- 
pearance, trembling with an agitation that beto- 
kened great distress of mind, and with a wild 
expression of eye that seemed bordering on 
insanity. He asked to be alone with the Colonel 
for a few minutes, which the Colonel was much 
more willing to grant than the alarmed servant 
was willing to leave the room. He obeyed his 
master's direction, however, and retired into the 
entry, not without keeping an anxious eye upon 
the door, when the young man began, saying: 

"I have a short but melancholy story to 
tell you. Colonel Rutgers. I am the only son 
of my mother, and she a widow, now living 

in county, with my sister, nearly grown to 

w^omanhood, but in feeble health. When I 
came to this city, about six years ago, I was 
employed as a clerk in a small retail store, 
where I became acquainted with your friend 
Mr. M., who, as you know, is an imj^orting 



Persons and Events. 107 

merchant. He formed so favorable an opinion 
of my business talents that he took me into his 
employment; and for some time past I have 
been his confidential clerk, and have received 
from him what is usually considered a good 
salary. Though my earnings were small when 
I first came to New York, I have always been 
careful to divide them with my mother; and it 
has been a constant source of hapi3iness to me, 
that, as my income increased, I could make the 
greater addition to her comfort and that of my 
sister. It is now about two years since, in an 
evil hour, I was first tempted to spend some 
money in going to the theatre, and I soon 
became extravagantly fond of the amusement. 
At the theatre I was led into bad company, 
and have often sat late at the card-table, where 
I was frequently the loser beyond my means of 
paying. This led me to jDut my hand into the 
drawer of my emj)loyer, and to embezzle sums 
of no great amount in the beginning, but still 
growing larger, with the hope that the tide of 
fortune would turn, and I could soon replace 
what I had taken. As ought to have been ex- 
pected, things went on from bad to worse, until 



108 Recollections of 

in tlie end I had purloined nearly two thousand 
dollars. By various contrivances, I have made 
out, so far, to conceal my dishonesty ; but 
matters have now reached a point where ex- 
posure becomes inevitable to-morrow, unless I 
can replace the money. I feel that I cannot 
brook the shame. I cannot look Mr. M. in the 
face, who has trusted me so far, and be con- 
strained to confess that I have stolen his prop- 
erty; and, to escape from the dilemma, I had 
deliberately resolved to take my own life. I 
had to-night written a letter to my poor 
mother, telling her it was the last she would 
ever receive from me, confessing my sin against 
her and against God, and asking her to forgive 
the son who had brought dishonor on her name, 
and taken his life with his own hand. Having 
finished the letter, I sat down in my chair, and 
had actually placed the muzzle of this pistol 
[showing it as he took it from his pocket] 
against my temple, to shoot myself through the 
head; when, as if with the suddenness of light- 
ning, your name, Colonel Rutgers, came into my 
mind. I had often heard Mr. M. speak of you 
as a man of great kindness and benevolence; 



Persons and Events. 101) 

and whether the suggestion came from an evil 
spirit or a good spirit, I at once determined 
that, before I committed the fatal deed against 
my own life, I would somehow find my way to 
you, and make you acquainted with my unhap- 
py story. 

"You have heard it. Colonel Eutgers; I can- 
not blame you if you do not believe a w^ord of 
it. It may appear to you as a fiction, devised 
to get money from you, perhaps to be spent in 
the same guilty w\ay in which I have lost 
money belonging to my employer. In one 
thino- I am determined — never to face Mr. 
M. again, unless I have the means of restoring 
what I have taken from him. Whether you 
will come to the relief of a guilty prodigal like 
myself, I must leave to your own heart to de- 
termine. My fate is in your hands; I can 
appeal to no one else." 

During the time the young man was speak- 
ing. Colonel Kutgers, as he said, watched his 
countenance with great care, and became con- 
vinced that he was telling the truth. Before 
giving a direct reply, he asked him if he had 
considered the great sin of appearing at the bar 



110 Recollections of 

of God witli his blood upon his own hands. 
He answered that he was not ignorant of the 
sin of self-murder, but that the dread of ex- 
posure would still drive him to it, adding, 
"Time presses, Colonel Rutgers, please let me 
know your decision. Will you relieve me V 

The Colonel waited some moments, during 
which they stood facing each other, and at 
length replied: "I will relieve you, on one con- 
dition; but I must have full assurance that you 
will comply with it." 

"Name it, name it, dear sir," the young man 
answered. "Should it be the cutting off my 
hand, I will not hesitate an instant. You may 
tell me of any thing in which I can please you. 
Save me, save my poor mother, and I will serve 
you during life, in any way or any work you 
can point out to me." 

"The condition," said Colonel Rutgers, "is 
simply this — that you will attend chui'ch with 
me, regularly, during the space of one year, and 
inform me every Sunday evening what you can 
recollect of the sermons you have heard." 

" Surely you would not mock me. Colonel 
Rutgers !" the young man replied ; " but is that 



Persons and Events. Ill 

all — is that all?" And, as lie uttered these 
words, lie fainted and dropped on tlie floor. 

After a time he revived, and, before leaving 
the house, Colonel Kutgers appointed an early 
hour the next morning to place the requisite 
amount in his hands, and thus make his account 
good. From that day onward the young man 
was a regular and devout worshipper in the 
Rutgers Street Church; and, before the end of 
the year, he became a sincere convert to the 
truth, and took his place by the side of his 
benefactor at the Lord's table. His subsequent 
life was not long, but in all respects such as his 
friends could desire. He was soon admitted as 
a junior partner in the house which he had 
served as confidential clerk; and afterwards, 
when performing a journey on business to the 
South, he was taken with fever and died. His 
life, however, was spared and prospered until 
he was enabled to leave a handsome competency 
to his mother and sister — his first earning-s 
having been applied to repay Colonel Rutgers 
the sum lent to him in his extremity. 

How many such deeds will rise up in the 
records of eternity to illustrate the piety of 



112 Recollections of 

this excellent man, the all-seeing God alone 
knows. One thing appears certain, that the 
most of what he did in this way he saw fit 
to keep to himself. His delicacy, too, was 
as great as his modesty. To the last he 
never disclosed the name of this young man 
to his friends; and when he gave the narra- 
tive to Dr. McMurray, he pleasantly added, 
" You have the story, but you must not 
ask the name. The one illustrates the sove- 
reign grace of God, and there is no need of 
the other to make the lesson the more in- 
structive or impressive." 

The result of this kindness to an erring 
young man was the " saving a soul from 
death, and hiding a multitude of sins;" and I 
have often thought, that if like compassion 
and relief were extended to our young men 
when first led astray, many, many of them 
would be saved from the perdition that now 
overtakes them. Our city is a vast mael- 
strom, that is continually swallowing up thou- 
sands and thousands of our youth who come 
from the country seeking employment. With- 
out parental watchfulness over them, they are 



Persons and Events. 113 

often ensnared before they are aware of their 
danger. Many of them have been religiously 
brought up, and, as the fruit of their first 
misdeeds, conscience will rise and make itself 
painfully felt. When suffering these pangs of 
remorse, a youth, not yet hardened through 
the deceitfulness of sin, would give worlds if 
he could find a kind look, or a helping hand, 
to encourage his return to the patli of duty; 
but when left to himself, under his painful 
sense of abandonment, he goes on from bad 
to worse, till, in despair, he gives up all for 
lost, and perishes forever. 

Our merchants should remember this. They 
owe more to a young man in their employ, than 
to see that he is always in his place at the 
counting-room or the store. They are, in some 
sense, responsible as his moral guardians, while 
he is serving them ; nor should they hastily cast 
him off for his first offence, when it comes to 
their knowledge. They should try to recLaim 
him, remembering that a kind word, spoken in 
season, may rescue him from the coils which the 
tempter is beginning to wind around him, and 
render him in after life the useful man and the 



114 Recollections of 

sincere Christian; when a cold neglect or un- 
pitying exposure may harden him in his sin, till 
he becomes a felon or a still worse malefactor. 

Col. Ruto-ers had no faith in leo;acies to the 
cause of religion, and giving little or nothing 
while a man lives. He would, he said, be his 
own executor of what he felt it his duty to 
give away for public purposes; and most faith- 
fully did he act up to his resolution of liberali- 
ty during his life. When he deemed an object 
entitled to his patronage, if he had not the 
money on hand he would borrow it, rather than 
send the applicant "empty away." When that 
excellent man, Dr. John H. Rice, was in the city, 
soliciting aid for the Union Theological Semi- 
nary in Virginia, he wished to call on Colonel 
Rutgers, and desired me to accompany him. 
When we made our call, and I had spoken of 
Dr. Rice's object, the Colonel laughingly replied 
that we found him unusually poor that day as 
to ready cash; but if he had not money, he was 
thankful he had credit. He accordingly asked 
for Dr. Rice's book, and put down his name as 
one of the most liberal subscribers, requesting 
Dr. Rice to meet him at my house the next 



Persons and Events. 115 

day, at eleven o'clock, whicli would give him 
time to go down to the bank. He met us at 
the hour appointed and gave his check, with a 
look, an expression of satisfaction, which, Dr. 
Rice remarked, so comforted his heart that he 
could go upon the strength of it many days 
in the toilsome, wearying work of soliciting 
subscriptions. This was the good Colonel's 
way of doing good things. It gave him 
pleasure to be liberal, and he felt obliged to 
the man who enabled him to see where his 
liberality would be of the greatest advantage 
to the cause of Christ. Would that all our 
men ' of wealth would be persuaded to taste 
that luxury! 



116 Recollections of 



CHAPTER VIIL 

Death of John Quincy Adams. — Conspicuous features in 

his character. his undeviating adherence to what he 

conceived to be right, exemplified in his appointments 

TO OFFICE WHILE PRESIDENT OF THE XJnITED StATES, ALSO 

WHILE OUR Minister at the Court of the Netherlands. — 
His great respect for the memory of his mother. — His 
opinion of a mother's influence on the character of 
distinguished men. — Importance of the subject. — How 

ILLUSTRATED IN HiSTORY BOTH SACRED AND PROFANE. SUS- 
CEPTIBILITY OF EARLY CHILDHOOD TO A MOTHEr's INFLUENCE. 

The deatli of tlie Hon. John Quincy Adams 
created a sensation which was felt extensively 
through the country. He was one of the Ex- 
Presidents of the United States, had reached the 
advanced age of eighty-two years, and from his 
earliest manhood had borne a conspicuous part in 
our political history both foreign and domestic. 
The manner and circumstances of his death ren- 
dered the event the more solemn and impressive. 
After his Presidency he had been a member of the 
House of Representatives for several years, and on 
the morning of Monday, the 21st February, 1848, 
having appeared as usual in his place, about twelve 



Persons and Events. 117 

o'clock lie fell from his chair, exclaiming " This is 
the last of earth ! I am content !" He was car- 
ried to the Speaker's room, and laid on a couch, 
where he remained nearly two days till he 
breathed his last, apparently unconscious during 
the interim. The House adjourned immediately 
after his attack, and the adjournment was contin- 
ued from day to day until his funeral solemnities 
were concluded. 

Mr. Adams was a man little understood by 
many. He had liot generally much of the genial 
manner and popular address which distinguished 
his friend Clay and others of his time. He was 
often so reserved and distant that many looked 
upon him as cold and phlegmatic. I once thought 
so of him myself, but on further acquaintance 
I found that he had a warm heart, and could be 
frank and cordial when occasion served. 

It is not my part to describe his career as a 
public man, or the ser^dces he rendered to his 
country in the various offices he was called to fill. 
But there are one or two features of his character 
which were so prominent and so much to his 
credit, that they should not be overlooked or for- 
gotten when his name is mentioned. 



118 Recollections of 

One was liis undeviating integrity, liis inflexi- 
ble purpose to do what lie thought was right. 
It is well known that he carried this adherence 
to principle so far as to have disappointed, per- 
haps alienated some of his party friends. When 
he became President of the United States, he 
could not be induced to confer office as a reward 
for mere partisan zeal. He looked on such a 
policy as disastrous if not ruinous to our system 
of Government. It may yet, he remarked one day, 
convert our best offices of honor and emolument 
into dens of thieves, in which corruption may 
become so rife, and wrong so flagrant, as to incite 
the people to violence if not to revolution, in 
order to punish the culprits and rid themselves of 
the evil. However earnestly he may have been 
urged on the subject as a measure indispensable 
to keep his party together, he was not the man to 
sacrifice on the altar of expediency at the ex- 
pense of principle.* 

* Mr. Adams was not the only one of our Presidents who took 
this honorable stand with regard to appointments. Washington's 
conduct on the subject is well known. The course that Jefferson 
pursued was not only so wise, but so honorable to himself that we 
give the following account of it, from the pen of a writer who 
describes the state of things in the country when Jefferson became 



Persons and Events. 119 

This had been his rule from the first of liis 
political career. As an instance of his fidelity to 



President. " While a very young man," lie says, " we entered warndy 
into politics, and joined the Tammany Society in Baltimore The 
propriety of Mr. Jefferson's course in refusing to make a general 
sweep of Federalists from office became a subject of discussion, and 
it was finally proposed that the Society should send a remonstrance 
to the President on the subject. A gentleman of high standing in 
the Association, not only for his intelligence, but for his warmth of 
party feeling, proposed that the wishes of ' the President's friends' 
should be made known to him. He himself intended to visit 
Monticello in the course of the ensuing summer, and, if authorized by 
a vote of the Society, he would open the matter to the President on 
some fitting occasion. This was agreed to. The gentleman discharged 
his commission and made his report. He said he had stated, to Mr. 
Jefferson the wishes of his friends in Baltimore, and was listened to 
very respectfully, after which the President replied that he should be 
very glad to gratify his friends by turning the Federalists out of 
office, and filling their places with those of his own party, but there 
was an obstacle in the way which he could not remove, a question 
which he had not been able to solve. ' Perhaps,' he continued, ' you 
can do this for Tue.' The gentleman despaired of solving any prob- 
lem that puzzled Mr. Jefferson, but desired to hear what it was. 
'Well, sir,' said Mr. Jefferson, 'we are Republicans, and are con- 
tending for the extension of the right of suffrage. Is it not so ?' 
'Yes, sir,' was the reply. 'We would not, therefore,' said Mr. 
Jefferson, ' put any restraint upon the right of suffrage as it already 
exists.' ' By no means, sir,' answered our messenger. ' Tell me 
then,' said Mr. Jefferson, ' what is the difference between denying 
the right of suffrage, and punishing a man for exercising it by 
turning him ont of office?' I could not answer Mr. Jefferson's 
question, and had to leave him where I found him," said our friend 
when he gave us an account of the interview. 



120 Recollections of 

what lie felt to be his duty, I may refer to an 
incident in his early history, which comes to us 
well authenticated, although it may not be very 
generally known. It is said that when Minister 
at the Netherlands, and comparatively a youth, 
he was invited to join the several Ambassadors 
of different nations at that Court, in a gathering 
for social enjoyment, in which cheerful con- 
versation and different amusements bore a part. 
Once they adjourned to a Sabbath evening. The 
time came, and the Ambassadors collected, but 
the American Minister was missing. It occa- 
sioned inquiry and disappointment, but presum- 
ing some special or insuperable obstacle prevent- 
ed his attendance, they said little of the cir- 
cumstance, and adjourned again to Sabbath 
evening. But the American Ambassador did 
not attend. The next meeting was on a week 
day evening, and the American was in his 
place. They were glad to see him, and signified 
their disappointment at his previous absences. 
Instead of making an apology, or assigning a 
fictitious reason, he frankly stated to them that 
his principles would not allow him thus to 
employ any part of the Sabbath. He was born 



Persons and Events. 121 

in a country settled by Puritans, of Puritan 
parents, wlio regarded the Sabbath as a divine 
ordinance. He had witnessed the good influence 
of its religious observance in the great intelli- 
gence, the pure morals, the energy, enterprise, 
and orderly habits of his countrymen. As a 
friend of his country, therefore, he could not per- 
vert the day or use it for other purposes than 
those to which he had been taught to devote it 
and seen it devoted, in whatever part of the 
world he might be, or by whatever different 
customs surrounded. 

Now to those who know the sneering character 
of most Sabbath breakers, and think of the age, 
high rank and splendor of these men, in connection 
with the youth of Mr. Adams, it would be difficult 
to mention an incident of moral courage superior to 
this. It seems to have completely overawed his 
distinguished companions, for by instant and 
general consent, they met no more on Sabbath 
evenings. 

Another point in his character which often 
drew my attention, was his vivid and grateful rec- 
ollection of his parents, especially of his mother. 
She was confessedly a superior woman, fully de- 



122 Recollections of 

serving all tlie respect and affection of her son, and 
I liave seen him often embracing the opportunity of 
showing his warm devotion to her memory. The 
sentiment seemed to grow stronger as he grew 
older ; and I remember one occasion in his declin- 
ing years, on which it showed itself very conspic- 
uously. 

There was a small company of us in New York, 
who were in the habit of meeting weekly at each 
other's houses for a social evening, and Mr. Adams 
usually made his arrangements to be with us when 
he passed through the city. He there met such 
men as Albert Gallatin, James Kent, and others 
whom he could not but recognize as kindred spirits, 
and in such society he appeared to great advantage. 
On such occasions he would seem to have read 
every thing and to have forgotten nothing ; and all 
this varied information would come up to his mind 
at the instant when the conversation called for it. 
As Mr. Gallatin and himself had both long been 
public men, and were familiar with leading states- 
men and scholars of their day, they had much 
in common to draw them out, and to render 
them an interesting study for others. They were 
about of the same height, both bald, with well de- 



Persons and Events. 128 

veloped heads, and notwitlistanding the collisions 
of past years in the political arena, you could see in 
every expression of their speaking countenances, 
not only that mellowed benevolence which is a 
fitting ornament of old age, but a very hearty 
delight in the company of each other. 

Among other things which arose as the subject 
of conversation one evening, was the influence of 
early training by a mother or some female friend 
taking a mother's place; which drew from Mr. 
Adams the warm expression of filial feeling which 
was so habitual with him. He roundly asserted 
that no man could be expected to reach high and 
lasting distinction in public or private life, unless 
the seed from which the tree had sprung was 
planted by a mother's hand. He referred to the 
adv^antages he had enjoyed from maternal care and 
wisdom in his early days, and when he spoke of 
the deep impression which his mother had made on 
the mind of her son, the tremulous tones of his 
voice, and his tender feeling moved all present 
nearly to tears, while no one seemed more affected 
than Mr. Gallatin. He in his turn had somethins; 
to say on the subject. His mother had died when 
he was but a child, but her place, he told us, was 



124 Recollections of 

filled by a lady who so far adopted him as to ren- 
der him unconscious of a mother's loss. After he 
had spoken of her for some time with great feeling 
Mr. Adams taking up the subject and rising from 
his seat, remarked witli great animation : " Gentle- 
men, where should you look to find the surest sign 
of a nation's future greatness and welfare ? Not so 
much to our Colleges and Universities, important 
as they are in their places, but to our families and 
our Female Seminaries, where the sex is being 
trained wbicli will give its lasting impress to the 
coming generations. We think we govern the 
ladies, but the ladies govern us — and it is well for 
us that it is so. Among all the pungent sayings 
of Bonaparte, there is none more true than where 
lie remarked tbat ' the greatest want of France in 
Ms day, was good mothers.'" 

This sentiment was a favorite topic with Henry 
Clay, to whom indeed both Mr. Adams and Mr. 
Gallatin often referred in their conversation, always 
showing those feelings of kindness as well as re- 
spect, with which Mr. Clay had the peculiar faculty 
of inspiring those who came within his reach. He 
never forgot "The Slashes" where he spent his 
boyhood under the care of a mother who spent her 



Persons and Events. 125 

choice hours in giving shape to the mind and char- 
acter of her son. Her image seemed to have been 
always present to his mind, even among the most 
exciting scenes of his life ; and it is said that the 
last utterance that escaped from his lips when 
dying, was " My Mother, Mother, Mother," his coun- 
tenance in the mean time displaying an eager fond- 
ness as if he saw her before him, and would fly to 
her embraces. 

The subject cannot well be over-rated. Great 
nations as well as great men have viewed it as of 
vital importance. In the days of Rome's greatest 
splendor, there stood on one of the seven hills, a 
temple dedicated to " Female Fortune ;" and over 
its magnificent portal was written the name of 
Volumnia, in whose honor the temple had been 
built, to perpetuate her memory as a matron who 
had saved Rome by her influence over her son3. 
Not far distant from it, arose a column, and there 
was inscribed on it — " Cornelia, Mother of the 
Gracchi" — in acknowledgment of her worth, as 
the mother of two sons, whom she had trained to 
be the ornaments and defenders of her nation. 
Such was the respect paid to Mothers who acted 
well their part in Pagan Rome. 



126 Recollections of 

But we have memorials of tlie same import in 
records, still more instructive than Rome can fur- 
nish. A mother's influence for good or for evil is 
presented to us with great variety of illustrations 
in the Scriptures. Have we observed how fi^e- 
quently they allude to the histories of the Mothers 
of kings who reigned in Israel and Judah, when in 
the days of national decline towards final ruin, the 
throne passed in rapid succession from one king to 
another who " did evil in the sig^ht of the Lord ?" 
The career of guilt and declension was sometimes 
checked by the appearance of some good king who 
was a blessing to his nation. Such was Josiah, of 
whom, as if to account for the character of the man, 
we are told that " his mother's name was Jedidah," 
its meaning at once announcing her piety and 
worth. But on the other hand, when it names the 
wicked and idolatrous kings who were the curse of 
the nation, we are carefully told what were the 
significant names of their mothers. Of Ahaziah, 
the son of Ahab, " w^ho did evil exceedingly in the 
sight of the Lord," we are told that his mother was 
Jezebel, " who stirred up his father to sin." In like 
manner we are told of Jehoahaz, that " his mother's 
name was Hamutal," and of Jehoiakim, that " his 



Persons and Events. 127 

mother's napie was Neliushtan." All this was to 
show that the bane of the nation was found in the 
nurseries of her kings, where their infant ininds 
were tainted and poisoned by their Jezebel moth- 
ers ; and that being thus early led away into sin, 
when in after life they gained the throne, their 
baleful influence was felt in spreading wickedness 
around them till the nation was carried into cap- 
tivity, and the land left a desolation. It was the 
corrupt Queen-mothers, corrupting the minds of 
their infant sons who were to be future kings, that 
finally and mainly drew down the anger of God ; 
nor was it till that fearful engine of evil had been 
for generations at work, that hope finally perished. 
On the other hand, if we consult the brightest 
pages of Sacred History, we there find men ^vhose 
names and lives will be coequal with time itself 
as blessings to the nation and the world. And 
what do we find as to their parentage ? No man 
among the lawgivers and leaders of nations stands 
superior to Moses; and of his mother it is said, 
"she feared not the king's commandment," but 
trained up her son to know and serve the Lord. 
Under a like happy influence was the childhood 
and youth of David passed, and how tender is his 



128 Recollections of 

acknowledgment of it in his subsequent days of 
power and fame, in the words, " O Lord, truly I am 
thy servant ;' I am thy servant and the son of thy 
handmaid — I will offer to thee the sacrifices of 
thanksgiving." John, the forerunner of our Lord, 
is said to have had none " greater than himself of 
all who had been born of women before him." 
His mother was Elizabeth, "walking in all the 
commandments of the Lord blameless." Among 
the apostles of our Lord was one noted as a son of 
thunder, and another, privileged to lean on his 
Master's bosom. We must be told who was their 
mother in order to account for their distinction 
among the twelve. Who, let me ask, was the 
mother of our Lord himself? Mary, to whom the 
salutation from Heaven was given : " Hail, thou 
that art highly favored, the Lord is with thee: 
blessed art thou among women ;" thus in His own 
example, showing it to be His will, that whatever 
is pure and holy and noble and great in manhood 
must be first matured under a mother s piety and 
faithfulness. 

It must be so. The line of the poet has become 
a proverb which tells us, 

"Just as the twig is bent, the tree's inclined." 



Persons and Events. 129 

and who but tlie mother bends the twig ? She has 
the mind and character in her hand while it is yet 
so flexible and ductile, that it can be led into any 
direction or formed into any shape. The delicacy 
of her nature, so characteristic of her sex, fits hei* 
peculiarly for the delicacy of the task. There is a 
hardness or a want of sensitiveness with man, 
arising partly from his nature, and partly from his 
occupations in life, that in some degree disqualifies 
the father from reaching; and winninsf the infant 
mind. It shrinks from his strong grasp, while it 
will resign itself gladly to the soft hand of a 
mother's care. It is the mother also who is always 
with her child if she is where mothers ought to 
be ; she must see continually the workings of its 
nascent faculties, where they most need to be 
restrained, and where led and attracted. Early as 
she may begin her task, she may be assured that 
her labor will not be lost because undertaken too 
soon. Mind, from the hour of its creation, is always 
acting, and soon she will see that carefully as she 
is studying her child, quite as carefully is her 
child studying her. Let her watch the varying 
expression of its speaking face, and she will per- 
ceive the young mind imbibing impressions from 



130 Recollections of 

every thing it sees her do or hears her say. Let 
her watch on too, and when, under her care, the 
expanding faculties have begun to display them- 
selves in the sportiveness of play, she will be often 
surprised to find the elements of character already 
fixed when she little expected it. She has but to 
watch for it, and she will find the embryo poet or 
orator or warrior with her in the nursery; and 
what he is to be in any of these stations which he 
is yet to fill, she must then decide. It is a law of 
our being which makes it so, a law which I would 
were written by the finger of God on every 
mother's heart, a law which teaches that the mind 
of childhood is like wax to receive, but like marble 
to hold, the impressions upon it, be they for good or 
for evil. 



Persons and Events. 131 



CHAPTER IX. 

EiiA OF Bible Societies. — Rev. Mh. Chaules, of Bala. — Origin 
OF THE British and Foreign Bible Society. — Hon. Elias 
BouDiNOT. — Convention to form the American Bible 
Society. — Address of the Convention to the Public. — 
Multiplication of the Scriptures by means of Bible 
Societies. — The Bible the first book printed with types. — 
Improvement in the art of Printing within the last 
FIFTY years. — Superiority of the English Translation of 
THE Bible. — Responsibility of England and America for 
the spread of Christianity and Civilization. 

The formation of Bible Societies is one of the 
most important eras in the history of the Church. 
The great Parent Institution, the Britisli and 
Foreign Bible Society was formed in 1804, and is 
said to owe its origin to a simple occurrence which 
is to be numbered among many examples showing 
how great results often spring from small begin- 
nings. 

The Kev. Mr. Charles, of Bala in Wales, as 
we are told, was walking in one of the streets of 
the town, when he met a child who attended his 
ministiy. He inquired if she could repeat the 
text from which he had preached on the preceding 



132 Recollections of 

Sabbatli. Instead of giving a prompt reply, as 
slie had been accustomed to do, ste remained 
silent. " Can you not tell tlie text, my little girl ?" 
repeated Mr. Charles. The chilc( wept, but was 
still silent. At length she said, "The weather, 
sir, has been so bad that I could not get to read 
the Bible." This remark surprised the good man 
and he exclaimed, " Could not get to read the 
Bible ! — how was that ?" The reason was soon 
ascertained ; there was no copy to which she 
could gain access, either at her own home or among 
her friends ; and she was accustomed to travel 
every week seven miles over the hills to a place 
where she could obtain a Welsh Bible, to read the 
chapter from which the minister took his text ; 
but during that week the cold and stormy weather 
had prevented her usual journey. 

Not long after this occurrence, Mr. Charles 
being in London, mentioned this touching incident 
to some of his friends. The result was a meet- 
ing which formed the British and Foreign Bible 
Society; and from that time onward, the circula- 
tion of the Scriptures " without note or comment" 
took a new hold of the Protestant mind throughout 
Christendom. In our own country various local 



Persons and Events. 133 

societies of circumscribed extent and limited 
means, sprang into existence, until very few of our 
cities or States vv^ere without some organization 
of the kind ; but they were not united or affilia- 
ted under a common head. The happy effects of 
this combination had been fully demonstrated in 
England ; the more local societies in that country 
giving strength to the Parent Institution by their 
union with it ; as tributary streams give compass, 
depth, and force to the river in which they are 
united. But though we had this example before 
us, various considerations for a time led many to 
believe that such a harmony of action would be 
impracticable in a nation spread over so wide a 
territory and so diversified in their views and 
tastes as ourselves. A paore careful examination, 
however, led to the conviction that these objections 
were without foundation, and that a National Bible 
Institution in this country could be made quite as 
efficient as in England. 

The Hon. Elias Boudinot, of Burlington, New 
Jersey was a leading man in the movement. 
His name was extensively known and greatly 
respected throughout the country as a true Chris- 
tian, and a wise counsellor. He had been a mem- 



134 Recollections of 

ber of tlie United States Congress, during the 
greater part of tlie American Revolution, in 
1782 was elected President of that distinguished 
assembly, and had the honor, as such, of signing 
the Treaty of Peace with Great Britain in which 
the independence of the United States was ac- 
knowledged. He afterwards filled various offices 
of high importance and honor, and in matured 
years retired from public life, devoting himself to 
the study of Biblical Literature, and the exercise 
of a kind and munificent liberality. 

The establishment of a National Bible Society 
had long been the subject of anxious desire with 
him. He now made it the great object of his life 
to create a sound public sentiment on the subject, 
and to persuade the various Bil^le Societies through- 
out the country, to send delegates to a Convention 
which might discuss and decide upon the wisdom 
of the measure he had so much at heart. In May, 
1816, his object was accomplished. The Conven- 
tion then assembled in New York, comprising 
many of our best and ablest men from the ranks of 
both the Clergy and Laity. After due delibera- 
tion, a Constitution was adopted, together with a 
public address to the inhabitants of the United 



• 



Persons and Events. 135 

States soliciting their co-operation. Tine address 
was from the pen of Dr. Mason, He struck it off 
at a sitting, and, as he told me, he spent nearly 
a whole night writing it. For concentration of 
thought, and powerful appeal, it is one of the 
best among the many good things which he has 
written, and had a very hapjjy effect upon the 
public mind. It furnishes so fine a specimen of 
the man, and at the same time so happily portrays 
the spirit with which the work was commenced, 
that I here subjoin it. It is as follows. 

" To TUE People of the United States. 

"Every person of observation has remarked that 
the times are pregnant with great events. The 
political world has undergone changes stupendous, 
unexpected, and calculated to inspire thoughtful 
men with the most boding anticipations. 

" That there are in reserve, occurrences of deep, 
of lasting, and of general interest, appears to l)e the 
common sentiment. Such a sentiment has not 
been excited without a cause, and does not exist 
without an object. The cause is to be sought in 
that Providence which adapts, with wonderful 
exactitude, means to ends; and the ol)ject is too 



136 Recollections of 

plain to be mistaken by those who carry a sense of 
religion into their speculations, upon the present 
and the future condition of our afflicted race. 

" An excitement, as extraordinary as it is power- 
ful, has roused the nations to the importance of 
spreading the knowledge of the one living and 
true God, as revealed in His Son, the Mediator be- 
tween God and men, Christ Jesus. This excite- 
ment is the more worthy of notice, as it has 
followed a period of philosophy, falsely so called, 
and has gone in the track of those very schemes 
which, under the imposing name of reason and 
liberality, were attempting to seduce mankind from 
all which can bless the life that is, or shed a cheer- 
ing radiance on the life that is to come. 

" We hail the reaction, as auspicious to whatever 

is exquisite in human enjoyment, or precious to 

* 
human hope. We would fly to the aid of all that 

is holy, against all that is profane ; of the purest 
interests of the community, the family, and the 
individual, against the conspiracy of darkness, dis- 
aster and death — to help on the mighty work of 
Christian Charity — to claim our place in the age of 
Bibles. 

" We have, indeed, the secondary praise, but still 



Persons and Eat.nts. 137 

the praise, of treading in the footsteps of those who 
have set an example without a parallel — an exam- 
ple of the most unbounded benevolence and benefi- 
cence ; and it cannot be to us a source of any pain, 
that it has been set by those who are of one blood 
with the most of ourselves ; and has been embodied 
in a form so noble and so Catholic, as ' The British 
and Foreign Bible Society.' 

"The impulse which that institution, ten thou- 
sand times more glorious than all the exploits of 
the sword, has given to the conscience of Europe, 
and to the slumbering hope of millions in the 
region and shadow of death, demonstrates to Chris- 
tians of every country what they cannot do l)y 
isolated zeal ; and what they can do by co-operation. 

"In the United States we want nothing but 
concert to perform achievements astonishing to our- 
selves, dismaying to the adversaries of truth and 
piety, and most encouraging to eveiy evangelical 
effort, on the surface of the globe. 

" No spectacle can be so illustrious in itself, so 
touching to man, or so grateful to God, as a nation 
pouring forth its devotion, its talent, and its 
treasures, for that kingdom of the Saviour which is 
righteousness and peace. 



138 Recollections of 

" If there be n single measure whicli can over- 
rule objection, subdue opj30sition, and command 
exertion, this is the measure. That all our 
voices, all our affections, all our hands, should 
be joined in the grand design of promoting ' peace 
on earth and good-will toward man' — that they 
should resist the advance of misery — should 
carr;^ the light of instruction into the dominions 
of ignorance; and the balm of joy to the soul 
of anguish ; and all this by diffusing the oracles 
of God — addresses to the understanding an argu- 
ment which cannot be encountered ; and to the 
heart an appeal which its holiest emotions rise up 
to second. 

" Under such impressions, and with such views, 
fathers, brethren, fellow-citizens, the American 
Sible Society has been formed. Local feelings, 
party prejudices, sectarian jealousies, are excluded 
by its very nature. Its members are leagued in 
that, and in that alone, which calls up every hal- 
lowed, and puts down every unhallowed principle 
— the dissemination of the Scriptures in the 
received versions where they exist, and in the most 
faithful where they may be required. In such a 
work, whatever is dignified, kind, venerable, true. 



Persons and Events. 139 

litis ample scoj)e; while sectarian littleness and 
rivalries can find no avenue of admission. 

" The only question is, whether an object of such 
undisputed magnitude can be best attained Ijy a 
National Society, or by independent associations in 
friendly understanding and correspondence. 

"Without entering into the details of this 
inquiry, we may be permitted to state, in a few 
words, our reasons of preference to a National Soci- 
ety supported by local Societies, and by individ- 
uals throughout our country. 

" Concentrated action is powerful action. The 
same powers, when applied by a common direction, 
will produce results impossible to their divided and 
partial exercise. Unity of a great system, com- 
bines energy of effort with economy of means. 
Accumulated intellio^ence interests and animates 
the public mind, and the catholic efforts of a 
country, thus harmonized, give her a place in the 
moral convention of the world ; and enable her to 
act directly upon the universal plans of happiness 
Avliieh are now pervading the nations. 

" It is true, that the prodigious territory of the 
United States — the increase of their population, 
which is gaining every day upon their moral culti- 



1 



140 Recollections of 



vation — and the dreadful consequences wliicli will 
ensue from a people's outgrowing the knowledge of 
eternal life, and reverting to a species of heathen- 
ism, which shall have all the address and profligacy 
of civilized society, without any religious control, 
present a sphere of action, which may for a long 
time employ and engross the cares of this Society, 
and of all the local Bible Societies of the land. 

" In the distinct anticipation of such an urgency, 
one of the main objects of the American Bible 
Society is, not merely to provide a sufficiency of 
well printed and accurate editions of the Scrip- 
tures; but also to furnish great districts of the 
American Continent with well executed stereotype 
plates, for their cheap and extensive diffusion 
throughout regions which are now scantily sup- 
plied, at a discouraging expense ; and which, never- 
theless, open a wide and prepared field for the 
reception of revealed truth. 

" Yet, let it not be supposed, that geogi-aphical or 
political limits are to be the limits of the Arner- 
ican Bible Society. That designation is meant to 
indicate, not the restriction of their labor, but the 
source of its emanation. They will embrace, with 
thankfulness and pleasure, every opportunity of 



Persons and Events. 141 

raying out, by means of the Bible, according to 
their ability, the light of life and immortality, to 
such parts of the world as are destitute of the 
blessing, and are within their reach. In this high 
vocation, their ambition is to be fellow-w^orkers 
with them who are fellow- workers with God. 

"People of tue United States: 

" Have you ever been invited to an enterprise of 
such grandeur and glory ? Do you not value the 
Holy Scriptures ? Value them as containing your 
sweetest hope ; your most thrilling joy ? Can you 
submit to the thought that you should be torpid in 
your endeavors to disperse them, while the rest of 
Christendom is awake and alert ? Shall you hang 
back in heartless indifference, when Princes come 
down from their thrones, to bless the cottage of the 
poor with the gospel of peace ; and Imperial Sov- 
ereigns are gathering their fairest honors from 
spreading abroad the oracles of the Lord your 
God? Is it possible that you should not see, in 
this state of human things, a mighty motion of 
Divine Providence? The most Heavenly charity 
treads close upon the march of conflict and 1 )lood ! 
The world is at peace ! Scarce has the soldier time 



142 Recollections of 

to unbind his helmet, and to wipe away the sweat 
from his brow, ere the voice of mercy succeeds to 
the clarion of battle, and calls the nations from 
enmity to love ! Crowned heads bow to the Head 
which is to wear " many crowns ;" and, for the first 
time since the promulgation of Christianity, aj)pear 
to act in unison for the recognition of its gracious 
principles, as being fraught alike with happiness to 
man and honor to God. 

" What has created so strange, so beneficent an 
alteration? This is no doubt the doing of the 
Lord; it is marvellous in om' eyes. But what 
instrument has he thought fit chiefly to use ? That 
which contributes, in all latitudes and climes, to 
make Christians feel their unity, to rebuke the 
spirit of strife, and to open upon them the day of 
brotherly concord — the Bible ! the Bible ! through 
Bible Societies ! 

" Come then, fellow-citizens, fellow-Christians, let 
us join in the sacred covenant. Let no heart be 
cold ; no hand be idle ; no purse reluctant ! Come, 
while room is left for us in the ranks whose toil is 
goodness, and whose recompense is victory. Come, 
cheerfully, eagerly, generally. Be it impressed on 
your souls, that a contribution, saved fi'om even a 



Persons and Events. 143 

cheap indulgence, may send a Bible to a desolate 
fomily; may become a radiating point of 'grace 
and truth' to a neighborhood of error and vice; 
and that a number of such contributions, made at 
really no expense, may illumine a large tract of 
country, and successive generations of immortals, in 
that celestial knowledge, which shall secure their 
present and their future felicity. 

" But whatever be the proportion between ex- 
pectation and experience, this much is certain : We 
shall satisfy our conviction of duty — we shall have 
the praise of high endeavors for the highest ends — 
we shall minister to the blessedness of thousands 
and tens of thousands of ^vliom we may never see 
the faces, nor hear the names. We shall set for- 
ward a system of happiness which will go on with 
accelerated motion and augmented vigor, after we 
shall have finished our career ; and confer upon our 
children, and our children's children, the delight 
of seeing the wilderness turned into a fruitful field, 
by the blessing of God upon that seed which their 
fathers sowed and themselves watered. In fine, we 
shall do our part toward that expansion and inten- 
sity of light divine, which shall visit, in its pro- 
gress, the palaces of the great, and the hamlets of 



144 " Recollections of 

tlie small, until the whole ' earth be full of the 
knowledge of Jehovah, as the waters cover the sea !'" 

This powerful appeal met with a hearty response. 
Indeed, the more the measure was contemplated, 
the more heartily did Christians of all Protestant 
denominations unite in a movement which, while 
it has multiplied Bibles to an extent previously 
unknown, has also indirectly produced results of 
great importance to religion, though perhaps not 
distinctly contemplated when the Bible Society 
was first formed. 

It was to circulate the Bible " without note or 
comment," thus giving scope and occasion for the 
pui'e, unmixed truth of the Bible to reveal its 
own intrinsic evidence as the '^ wisdom of God, 
and the power of God unto salvation." Valuable 
as Commentaries are, the Bible had been too 
much considered as of little value without them. 
We had all somewhat lost sig^ht of the self- 
evidencing, and soul-converting power of the 
word of God simply as His word ; and since the 
Christian Church has been engaged in spreading 
the Bible " without note or comment," I have seen 
abundant proof that Christians have acquired more 



Persons and Events. 145 

just and adequate views of the fulness and 
power whicli are the great distinctive marks of the 
Holy Scriptures. 

As another happy result of the Bible move- 
ment, we may add, it has enabled " Christians 
of different denominations better to understand 
the common ground on which all can unite in the 
service of their common Lord. " One Lord, one 
faith, one baptism, one hope of our calling," ho^v- 
ever ^prominently set forth as the true spirit of the 
apostolic Church, had been long greatly overlooked 
by Christians. They seemed rather to be governed 
by the spirit described by the apostle when, writing 
to the Corinthians, he says, "Every one of you 
hath a psalm, hath a doctrine, hath a tongue, 
hath a revelation, hath an interpretation." The 
jealousy of sect and the spirit of sect had so 
overrun, divided, and entangled the Church of 
God, as to render her, in a measure, unconscious 
of 'what she might accomplish by uniting her 
energies in a common cause. She was too much 
like Samson, not only shorn of her strength, 
but bound with wdths of her own creating, 
throuc^h the divisions that had afflicted her. The 

Bible Society, bringing together in one harmo- 

10 



146 Recollections of 

nious effort, for the spread of tlie Scrij^tures, all 
who hold to them as the supreme rule of faith 
and practice, not only gives us strength to do 
more for our object than would be accomplished 
by separate action, but also increases our zeal 
and happiness in the service, by bringing heart 
to heart in the great Christian Family, and 
helping us to realize " how good and how pleas- 
ant a thing it is for brethren to dwell together in 
unity." The coals of fire which have been kept 
apart, and lie smouldering under the ashes of 
their own creating, brighten and glow with 
increased heat when brought together. 

But apart from these incidental benefits 
growing out of Bible Societies, is the multiplica- 
tion of Bibles which they have produced, both 
in Christian lands and throughout the world ; and 
this indeed is to be viewed as their great and 
primary object. Previous to their formation, it 
has been reckoned that about four million copies 
of the Scriptures were in circulation. The num- 
ber is supposed now to have reached ninety 
million, and of this large number, about two- 
thirds are in the English language. At the 
same time the entire Scriptures, or parts of 



Persons and Events. 147 

them, have been translated into one hundred and 
seventy-four dialects and languages in which they 
had not previously appeared. All these Bibles 
indeed have not been issued from the presses of 
Bible Societies. Perhaps from one-third to one- 
half of them have been published on private 
account. But the demand for their increased 
issues from individual publishers has been pro- 
duced in a great degree by the newly awakened 
desire for the holy volume which Bible Societies 
have been the means of creating. Individuals 
would not have done so much had not the 
Societies done more. 

I cannot reflect upon these movements for the 
circulation of the Holy Scriptures without noticing 
some things in connection with them which 
illustrate the wisdom and goodness of God in 
carrying out His purposes of mercy, and which 
serve to show that "this also cometh forth from 
the Lord of Hosts," who is wonderful in counsel. 

It is a memorable and gratifying fact, that 
the first entire volume ever printed with types 
was the Bible, as if at once to " denote the 
greatest honor that could be bestowed on the 
art of printing, and the infinitely highest pur- 



148 Recollections of 

pose to which it was ever to be ap23iied." The 
work was issued about the middle of the fifteenth 
century, when Guttenberg and Faust gave unend- 
ing celebrity to their own names, and also to 
Mentz, a town in Germany, by making it the 
place where was first seen what the press may 
be made to accomplish for the illumination of 
our race. But from that period onward, — to the 
time when a new zeal was felt among Christians 
for the sj^read of the Bible among all classes and 
all nations, the art of printing may be said to 
have been in its infancy. It was comparatively 
a slow and costly process. 

But by recent great improvements, with the intro- 
duction of machinery, one man can do in twenty-four 
hours, work which would formerly have required ten 
or twelve men, and can do it in greater perfection 
as well as with more expedition. The price of a 
volume is thus greatly reduced, and the number of 
copies at the same time greatly multiplied. Now 
be it remembered, these unexampled improvements 
in the art of printing were introduced just after the 
Church of God began to pour forth hei* prayers, 
and put forth her strength for the spread of the 
Bible. The Most High thus promptly answered 



Persons and Events. 149 

her prayers and smiled upon her efforts by furnish- 
ing new and more efficient means for the accom- 
plishment of her object ; nor is His hand the less 
visible because these improvements in the art of 
printing were effected, at least in part, by men w^ho 
"meant not so, neither did their heart tliink so." 
When Solomon desired to build the temple, and 
the purpose called for a " worker in brass, Hiram 
of Tyre was filled ^^'ith wisdom and understanding 
and cunning to work all work in brass; and he 
came to King Solomon and wrought all his work." 
Another consideration: The majority of the 
multiplied translations of the Scriptures into 
foreign languages have been made by men to 
whom the Eno'lish lan2:uao:e was vernacular ; and 
of course the versions coming from their hands 
would be more or less imbued with the spirit of 
our English BiT)les. They no doubt had the 
Hebrew and Greek texts before them when they 
engaged in their work, as their highest authority. 
But they could not avoid carrying along with 
them, recollections and associations of the Bibles 
which they had read and reverenced as such from 
their earliest days. A native of France or of 
Germany would have felt the same influence from 



150 Recollections of 

his own vernacular. But among all translations of 
our Bible into languages modern or ancient, our 
English Bible is confessedly the best. This is 
becoming, very generally, the conviction of the 
learned world. It was prepared with a care and 
labor that could hardly be exceeded. The ability 
and learning of the choice scholars and divines of 
their day were enlisted in the service. In all these 
respects it claims a pre-eminence which can be 
conceded to no other, however to be commended in 
various respects. Of course, men who had spoken 
the English language and read the English Bible 
from their childhood, other things being equal, are 
the men best qualified for the work of making new 
translations of the Holy Scriptures. If early 
associations in favor of any translations must be 
expected to influence their views, on every account 
let it be the best translation which the world had 
previously seen. 

It should still farther be observed, that of all 
the nations of the earth, none are found so widely 
spread through various countries and climes, as the 
nations who claim the English as their native 
tongue. You may call them Anglo-Saxon, or 
Anglo-American, you find them everywhere, pui*- 



Persons and Events. 151 

suing commerce, or art, or some object which has 
enlisted their enterprise and ambition. Especially 
in Pagan lands, you find more of them than of all 
other nations in Christendom combined. Their 
sway in India, and indeed in all Asia, and in every 
accessible part of Afiica, stands, and is likely to 
stand, unrivalled ; and, thank God ! wherever these 
pioneers go, some of their countrymen are sure 
to follow, bringing with them the Word of Life 
for the healing of the nations which others may 
have first "fisited for purposes of worldly gain. 
They are there to translate the Bible, to circulate 
the Bible, so that every man of every nation should 
know and read the wonderful works of Grod in his 
own tongue wherein he was born ; and the men 
chosen to do the work are the very men who, from 
the advantages furnished by their own language, 
are qualified to do it best. 

This is a point which should be carefully 
weighed. It throws upon the Saxon race, heavy 
responsibilities respecting the future destinies of 
the world. As a fresh illustration of it, I subjoin 
the follomng extract from the Christian " Citizen," 
of 1861 :— 

" Britain has frequently been denominated the 



152 Recollections of 

mother of nations. Whatever may be lier title 
to this appellation, nothing is more evident and 
true, than the fact, that her island has been the 
laboratory of a most remarkable race, in vrhich 
nearly all the races that peopled Europe, fi'om the 
Roman to the Norman conquest, v^ere combined. 
All that is vigorous in the Celt, the Saxon, the 
Scandinavian, and the Norman, is absorbed into 
what we call the Anglo-Saxon race ; and when the 
combination was completed on the Island of Great 
Britain, a new world was discovered, as if it were 
on purjijose for the irresistible expansion of that 
mighty race. As an illustration of one of its 
physical qualities, it is estimated that its popula- 
tion doubles itself in thirty-five years, while that of 
Germany doubles itself in seventy-six ; of Holland, 
in one hundred ; of Spain, in one hundred and 
six; of Italy, in one hundred and thirty-five; of 
France in one hundred and thirty-eight ; of Portu- 
gal, in two hundred and thirty-eight ; and that of 
Turkey, in five hundred and fifty-five years. 

"When one or two vessels crossed the ocean, 
and planted here and there along the coast of North 
America a few germs of that race, its -whole 
population in the Old World did not exceed six 



Persons AxND Events. 153 

millions. . England, Wales, and Scotland, num- 
bered fewer inhabitants at that time, than New 
York, Pennsylvania, and Ohio do now. Hardly 
two centuries and a half have elapsed since that 
epoch, and now there are at least twenty-five 
millions of that race in North America and its 
adjacent islands, or a numl)er exceeding the whole 
population of Great Britain. 

"In 1620, the Anglo-Saxon race numbered about 
six millions, and was confined to England, Wales, 
and Scotland, and the combination of which it is 
the result, was not then more than half perfected — 
for neither Wales nor Scotland was more than 
half Saxonized at that time. Now it numbers 
sixty millions of human beings, planted upon all 
the islands and continents of the earth, and 
increasing everywhere by an intense ratio of 
progression. It is fast absorbing or displacing afll 
the sluggish races of barbai'ous tribes of men that 
have occupied the continents of America, Africa, 
Asia' and the islands of the ocean. See it girdling 
them from year to year, with its vigorous planta- 
tions. If no great physical revolution supervene 
to check its propagation, it will number eight 
hundred millions of human beings in less than one 



154 Recollections of 

hundred and fifty years from the present time ; all 
speaking the same language, centred to the same 
literature and religion, and exhibiting all its 
inherent and inalienable characteristics. 

" Thus the population of the earth is fast be- 
coming Anglo-Saxonized by blood. But the Eng- 
lish language is more self-expansive and aggressive 
than the blood of that race. When a community 
begins to speak and read the English language, it 
is half Saxonized, even if not a drop of Anglo- 
Saxon blood runs in its veins. Ireland was never 
colonized from England, like North America or 
Australia ; but nearly the whole of its seven or 
eight millions already speak the English language, 
which is the preparatory state to being entirely 
absorbed into the Anglo-Saxon race, as one of its 
most vigorous and useful elements. Everywhere 
the English language is gaining upon the lan- 
guages of the earth, and preparing those who 
speak it for this absorption. The young genera- 
tion of the East Indies is learning it, and it is 
probable that within fifty years, twenty-five 
millions of human beings, of Asiatic race, will 
speak the language on that continent. So it is in 
the United States. About fifty thousand emi- 



Persons and Events. 155 

grants from Germany, and other countries of con- 
tinental Europe, are arriving in this country every 
year, PerhajDS they cannot sijeak a word of 
English when they first land on our shores ; but in 
the course of a few years they master the language 
to some extent. Their children sit upon the same 
benches in our common schools with those of our 
native Americans, and become, as they grow uj^ 
and diffuse themselves among the rest of the 
population, completely Anglo-Saxonized. 

" Thus the race, by its wonderful self-expansive 
power of language and blood, is fast occupying 
and subduing to its genius, all the continents and 
islands of the earth. The grandson of many a 
young man who reads these lines, will probably 
live to see the day when that race will number its 
eight hundred millions of human beings. Perhaps 
they may comprise a hundred nations or distinct 
governments. Perhaps they may become a grand 
constellation and commonwealth of republics, per- 
vaded by the same laws, literature, and religion. 
Their unity, harmony, and brotherhood must be de- 
termined by the relations between Great Britain and 
the United States. Their union will be the union 
of the two worlds. If they discharge their duty 



156 Recollections of 

to eacli other, and to mankind, tliey must become 
tlie united heart of the mighty race they represent, 
feeding its myriad veins with the blood of moral 
and political life. Upon the state of their fellow- 
ship, then, more than upon the union of any two 
nations on earth, depend the well-being of human- 
ity, the peace and progress of the world." 



Persons and Events. IT.', 



CHAPTER X. 

Declension in Religion after the days of Edwards and 
Whitfield. Views of Dr. Green and Bishop Meade. — Apa- 
thy prevailing as to Foreign Missions. — Rise of the A. B. 
C. F. M. — Subsequent Revival of Religion in the Churches. 
— New York Missionary Society. — Influence of Dr. Mor- 
rison in awakening sympathy for the Heathen. — Increasing 
Activity of the Missionary Spirit. — Responsibility of the 
American Churches in evangelizing the Pagan World. — 
Great importance of Institutions for the special training 
of Foreign Missionaries. 

I HAVE always looked uj)on it as a subject for 
thankfulness, that I was allowed to enter the gos- 
pel ministry in the early part of the present 
century. Subsequent to the revivals of religion 
which overspread tlie country under Edwards, 
Whitfield, and others, from 1740 to 1770, a fearful 
declension had taken place. It lasted for more 
than forty j^ears. " During this period," says the 
venerable Dr. Green, "the spirit of the Revolu- 
tionary War, and the sympathy with the French 
Revolutionists, and the spirit of Tom Paineism, 
spread over all our land." Other venerable fathers 
of the church have given the same account of that 



158 Recollections of 

mournful epoch. "From 1805 to 1812," says 
Bishop Meade of Virginia, "it seemed as if the 
worst hopes of the Church's enemies and the most 
painful fears of her friends were about to be real- 
ized." But a visible reaction in favor of religion 
began to show itself from 1810 to 1812 or 1813; and 
it deserves especial note, that this happy change 
followed very closely, if it was not simultaneous 
with, the incipient movements of our churches for 
the evangelization of the world. There had previ- 
ously been a guilty and lamentable apathy on this 
subject. The great duty of the Church on earth is 
read in the command, " Go ye into all the world? 
and preach the Gospel to every creature ;" and if, 
as the words intimate, the Church would expect 
the Lord to manifest his presence with her at home, 
she must engage in fulfilling her duty to the 
nations abroad. So the American Church found it 
in this memorable period of her history. The 
American Board of Commissioners for Foreign 
Missions was formed, and took its first steps to 
awaken American Christians to her great work, in 
1810 ; and from that time onward, a new era was 
inaugurated among us, for the conversion of the 
world. A little, and a very little, had been for- 



Persons and Events. 159 

iiierly done, and that, to their honor be it said, 
chiefly by our Moravian brethren, Next to nothing 
was done in foreign lands ; and though the Indians 
were at our doors, it is both humbling and aston- 
ishing when we reflect upon the small scale on 
which missions even to them were planned and 
conducted. 

The New York Missionary Society had existed 
for some time. It was composed of members from 
three denominations — the Presbyterian, the Re- 
formed Dutch, and Baptist; and with their 
strength united, they supported only two mission- 
aries, one among the Tuscaroras, and one among 
the Seneca Indians. The usual contribution from 
our able men w^ho gave any thing, was three dol- 
lars a year. Thirty dollars, if paid at one time, 
made the donor a life-member of the Society, and 
his certifi.cate of membership was often viewed as 
receipt in full, precluding all further demands on 
his purse for the conversion of the world to Chris- 
tianity. 

Indeed, on the abstract question of what was 
duty to the heathen world, a mistaken and con- 
tracted view prevailed with some of our greatest 
and best men. When the first missionaries to 



160 Recollections of 

India, as Newell, Judson, Hall, and others, were 
sent out by the A. B. C. F. M., they came on to 
New York, previous to leaving our shores. Their 
purpose was openly and loudly condemned by 
some of our leading clergy as undutiful and Quix- 
otic. It was said they should stay at home and 
preach the Gospel to the destitute in our own 
country ; and that their zeal to go abroad was so 
wild and vain, that if they could not be reasoned 
or rebuked out of it, they should be left: to them- 
selves, to be cured of their presumption by their 
own bitter experience. 

Many of these good men lived to change their 
views, and entered on the great work with such 
zeal as if they felt they had time to redeem, and 
would make amends for their former error. They 
fell in with the current, which in a short time 
became so strong, as to extend itself to all evan- 
gelical denominations in our land. Presbyterians, 
Congregationalists, Baptists, Methodists, and Epis- 
copalians have since taken up the work of preach- 
ing the Gospel to all nations, laying the founda- 
tions of those noble enterprises which are now 
going on "conquering and to conquer;" and I 
believe I am fully justified in saying, that every 



Persons and Events. IGl 

period wliicli has been marked by extraordinaiy 
zeal and liberality in the cause of Foreign Missions, 
has been distinguished in an equal degree by 
unusual sj)iritual prosperity in the churches at 
home. No doubt, there is a mutual reaction of the 
one upon the other, and so we should expect. " He 
that watereth," we are told, " shall be watered also 
himself;" and while the Church gains more strength 
to go on in her work of Avatering others, she draws 
a still more abundant blessing upon her own 
members, qualifying them "more abundantly for 
every good word and work." 

In the work of awakening the spirit of Missions 
in our churches, there was one instrumentality 
which should not be overlooked, and which, as we 
think, has not always been properly estimated. 

When Christians in Encrland bes^an their mis- 

sionary operations in the East, they met with much 

opposition from the East India Company ; and to 

such an extent was this hostility carried, that for 

years no missionary was allowed to sail for India 

in a ship which the Company could briuL*" under 

their control. Accordingly, when Dr. Morrison 

and his companions were sent to China and to 

India, they left England for America, and it was 
11 



162 Recollections of 

from New York that this distiuguished man of 
God sailed for Canton. The visit Avhich he made 
to us was not of long duration, while some of those 
who came with him remained with us after he had 
left. But, filled as their hearts were with the 
importance of the great work to which they had 
devoted themselves, they talked about it, preached 
about it, and prayed about it, whether in the pulpit 
or in the parlor, by the wayside or the fireside. 
They could not fail to produce a deep and wide 
impression on the minds of Christians, and we may 
date from that period a great advance in zeal for 
the conversion of the world in the American 
Churches. So does God make the wrath of man 
to praise him. If the* hostility of the East India 
Company would not allow those brethren to 
embark for their field of labor directly from 
England, and obliged them to go by the way of 
New York, it was because God had work for them 
to do in New York in furtherance of their great 
object. Dr. Morrison's influence especially can be 
well remembered by many of us. When he left 
home, he had made some very painful sacrifices to 
his zeal for the cause, and there was a melting 
tdnderness in his appeals which rendered them 



Persons and Events. 163 

peculiarly j)owerful. He was "a man full of the 
Holy Ghost," raised up and richly qualiiied for 
"the work whereunto he was called;" and his 
subsequent labor in translating the Bible into the 
Chinese languao-e, is a memorial of his worth that 
cannot be too highly estimated. 

But whatever cause or causes may have con- 
tributed to produce it, the growth of a holy zeal 
for the conversion of all nations to Christianity has 
become a marked characteristic of the last fifty 
years, in all Protestant Denominations of our land. 
Annual contributions to the cause, which formerly 
seldom reached even a few thousand dollars, now 
approach a million and a half. Missionary Stations, 
instead of beins: few in number and feeble in 
growth, are now found in every quarter of the 
globe, exhibiting a strength and stal)ility which is 
every year increasing ; and our missionaries, instead 
of being faint-hearted and discouraged by the 
smallness of their numbers and the apathy of the 
Churches at home, are counted by thousands, and 
in view of the success attending their labors, and, 
the sympathies that follow them from Christian 
lands, are animated with the confidence that they 
see the dawn of the day when " the kingdoms of 



164 Recollections of 

this world shall become the kingdoms of our Lord 
and of His Christ." 

This growing and expanded zeal is indeed 
found in all the Churches of Protestant Christen- 
dom, especially in England. But, even in England, 
the rate of increase in contributions both of men 
and of money has not been so great as it has been 
in America ;* and we are bound to take the lead 
in this respect, if we take into consideration the 
greater rapidity of our growth in population and in 
wealth. 

But there is still another consideration which 
should excite our churches to increased activity and 

* The Congregationalist has recently pi'esented the following sta- 
tistics. "The British missionary societies are twenty in number, 
employing 6,216 agents, having 184,000 Church members, 201,000 
scholars, and an annual income of $3,094,000. The continental soci- 
eties are twelve in number, one-half having their head-quarters in 
Germany, having 811 agents, 70,000 Church members, 12,000 pupils, 
and an annual income of $287,000. The European total of Protes- 
tant missions there is 32 societies, 7,027 agents, 263,000 Church 
members, 213,000 pupils in the school, and an annual income of 
$3,381,000. The American missionary societies are sixteen in num- 
ber ; 2,388 agents, 54,000 Church members, 22,000 pupils, with an 
income of $1,100,000. The grand total of Protestant missionary 
operations, then, is 48 societies, 9,415 agents, 317,000 Church mem- 
bers, 235,000 pupils, and a combined income of $4,481,000." It is 
supposed by many who ought to know, that the estimate of income 
to the American Societies is too low, by at least $200,000. 



Persons and Events. 165 

enlarged plans of operation. There is a responsibility- 
lying on the churches of America in this great work, 
arising from her geographical position and the char- 
acter of her population, which cannot be too often 
presented to our minds, or too carefully weighed. 
I love to dwell on the subject, though at the risk 
perhaps of being charged with repeating myself. 

No Protestant nation stands so directly face to 
face with the Pagan world as ourselves. From our 
shores on the Pacific, we look immediately, not 
only on the inhospitable wilds of Siberia, but upon 
the vast and populous empire of China ; upon Far- 
ther India, and upon the islands of Japan and the 
Eastern Archipelago ; regions " where Satan's seat 
is," and where his unclean and cruel dominion, as 
yet, has been scarcely invaded. A new way of 
access to them is now opened. The ocean which 
divides us from them, is already bridged by our 
flying steamers, freighted with the wealth of the 
world. While our merchants are so actively 
employed in gathering golden harvests from com- 
merce with these dark and long inaccessible 
countries. Christians among us should be equally 
engaged in sending them " greater riches than the 
treasures of Egypt." They present a field for 



166 Recollections of 

Gospel conquests that seems to have been reserved 
for the American Churches; and we should con- 
sider it a duty specially required of us to " go up 
and possess the land," covering it with the bless- 
ings of Christian truth and Christian freedom. 

But we have a work to do at home as well as 
abroad, for Christianizing the world, which, in a 
great degree, is peculiar to ourselves. Our coun- 
try is the home of the emigrant, and to furnish an 
asylum for the oppressed and destitute of other 
lands, is one of the destinies which we are 
appointed to fulfil. I do not share in the fears 
which some entertain on this subject. I do not 
believe that our institutions are jeopardized by the 
crowds seen flying to us from abroad. I entertain 
the higher hopes of our country when I see it 
becoming a Bethesda, a house of mercy for the 
suffering ; for it thus secures to itself the blessings 
of them that were ready to perish. The nation has 
possessed a character from the beginning, too 
distinct and enduring, too strong and determined, 
to be changed by any exotic influence acting upon 
it at this day of its maturing strength. Let wise 
legislation and active Christian benevolence take 
care that foreigners be made to understand and 



Persons and Events. 167 

a])preciate our civil and religious privileges; and 
so far from having any thing to fear, we have much 
to hope, both for ourselves and for them, by their 
residence in the midst of us. It is indeed true that 
they bring with them lamentable displays of igno- 
rance and superstition. But ^ve should look upon 
them as sent to us to be enlightened and relieved. 
We should consider it as so much work brought to 
our doors, that it may be done the more effectually. 
They are sent to us that they may gain lessons 
which they could not have learned so well, nor 
w^ould we so earnestly have taught them, had they 
remained in their former homes. When they 
become inhabitants of a country held in common 
by them and ourselves, we feel that we are so shut 
up to our duty that the penalty of our neglect 
must be our own ruin; that we must give the 
truth to them, or lose it ourselves ; and thus are 
we stimulated in our duty by the conviction that, 
while we are acting for the good of others, we are 
also laboring for our own welfare, and the welfare 
of our children in future generations. 

But the good which may thus be done among 
the strangers within our gates is far from being 
confined to those who may live and die among us. 



168 Recollections of 

Througli them we are sowing a seed wliicli is yet 
to spring up and bear its most abundant fruit in 
the countries from which they have come. There 
is an incident in New Testament history which has 
a pregnant meaning on this subject. When 
Jerusalem, on the day of Pentecost, was made the 
radiating point of " saving light" to the world, 
" there were dwellers in the city out of every nation 
under heaven; Parthians, and Medes, and Elamites, 
and the dwellers in Mesopotamia, and in Judea, 
and Cappadocia, in Pontus, and Asia, Phrygia, and 
Pamphylia, in Egypt, and in the parts of Libya 
about Cyrene, strangers of Rome, Jews and prose- 
lytes, Cretes and Arabians," who received the 
Gospel, and " were baptized in the name of 
Christ." The time had come when repentance and 
remission of sins should be preached in His name 
among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem; and 
here do we see the all- wise God preparing the right 
means for accomplishing that great end. He shed 
down His Spirit, and brought into His church men 
" of every nation under heaven," while they were 
" dwellers" or " sojourners" among His people, that 
they might be constrained and the better qualified 
to carry His Gospel into all the various lands from 



Persons and Events. 1G9 

which they had come, and to which they belonged. 
The result was soon made known in the speed and 
the power with which His kingdom was spread in 
that day of its glory. 

We believe that l)y a similar instrumentality 
the Gospel is again to be carried to distant and 
now darkened regions of the earth ; and that such 
a service as was then rendered by " the dwellers at 
Jerusalem from every nation under heaven," will 
again be performed by " the sons of the stranger" 
already among us, or now clustering to our shores 
from all quarters of the globe. We view them as 
sent to us by the overruling providence of God, 
that they may here learn our religion, our laws and 
institutions, and become the means of carrying 
these privileges back to the home of their fathers. 
In this way a new leaf is to be opened up in the 
history of missions. Much credit as may be due 
to the noble-hearted men who have gone abroad 
from Christian lands as missionaries to the 
heathen, it is vain to expect that the great mass of 
Pagan nations can be brought to Christianity l\y 
their labors. They can but sow the seed ; " and 
herein is that saying true, one soweth and another 
reapeth." The harvest nuist he gathered in by 



170 Recollections of 

those wlao belong to the land where the seed shall 
have taken root. No people can be so advantageous- 
ly and universally instructed as where the teachers 
and the taught speak the same vernacular language, 
and sympathize with each other through the 
countless chords of the heart, which a foreigner 
cannot so happily touch. Native instructors must 
do the work, and they can never be so amply 
qualified for their task as by having lived in the 
midst of a people, and mingled with a people, where 
they have not only learned the truths of Chris- 
tianity, but have also seen its practical workings, 
and have been witnesses of the blessings it 
bestows. 

Our age and our country have already fui- 
nished a remarkable demonstration of this. Time 
has fully shown how little can be done for Africa 
unless by those who properly belong to her own 
race of the human family. Long, painfully long, 
has she remained what she has often been called, 
"opprobrium humani generis," the reproach of 
mankind, because of her deep and unrelieved 
degradation. Notwithstanding the most perseve- 
ring efforts made by some of her best and most 
devoted friends, sad experience has shown that she 



Persons and Events. 171 

never can be elevated and enlightened by tlie 
labors of white men. They are under the ban of 
her climate ; and she has vrritten her stern decree 
for their exclusion along her coast, in the graves of 
those to whom it was allowed only to die for the 
cause for which they had hoped to live and labor. 
All now admit that if ever Africa is redeemed from 
darkness, it must be the work of her own sons, 
and of their descendants, trained for a successful 
entrance on the service by having enjoyed the 
privileges of a Christian land. And since the work 
has passed into their hands, a success has followed 
it that has silenced even the scoffer. " Ethiopia is 
stretching out her hands unto God." Regions on 
her coast, lately "filled with the habitations of 
cruelty," are blessed with the light of life. A 
cordon of moral health begins to surround her, not 
to confine pestilence within, but to exclude pirates 
from without, whose ruthless violence has long soaked 
her sands in the tears and blood of her children. 
Liberia is a Christian and a free country ; and, like 
" a city set on a hill," is showing to the world what 
Africans can become, and can accomplish, when 
moulded under the power of the Gospel. It was 
in America, and while dwelling in the midst of us, 



172 Recollections of 

fcliat tlie men who have thus begun the work of 
evangelizing the hind of their fathers were trained 
for their high enter]3rise; and our nation has 
enjoyed the opportunity of showing how success- 
fully colonies may be planted, without entailing 
on them the evils of colonial dependence. 

Let us also look at China. Missionary meaus 
and labors have been expended there without in- 
terruption for many years, but with comparatively 
small success. The land still continues walled 
in from the approach of the Gospel, and the 
inhabitants boast that its citadels of darkness 
remain impregnable, whether assailed by one de- 
nomination of Christians or another. Their 
habitual jealousy and studied contempt for foreign- 
ers seem to shut their ears ao-ainst the truth 
which its ablest advocate may present to them; 
and their language is so intricate and perplexing 
that it costs him the labor of years before he can 
either speak or write it with freedom and confi- 
dence. No argument can be required to show 
what an impulse would be given to the spread of 
Christianity in China by the native Chinaman, 
who, having witnessed and felt the power of the 
Gospel in a Christian land, would then return with 



Persons and Events. 173 

a heart yearning for tlie salvation of his country- 
men, "beseeching them in Christ's stead to be recon- 
ciled to God." But where and how are the proud, 
jealous sons of that long-secluded and wide empire 
to be qualified for such an important service ? Not 
many years since, it would have been scarce possi- 
ble to give an answer to the question. llecent 
events, already noticed, suggest a reply. The 
advance of our nation with her institutions, both 
civil and religious, to the shores of the Pacific, was 
an important step in the civilization of the world ; 
and now, when, under the aegis of her protection, 
she is bringing to light the rich resources of that 
long-neglected region, the dormant faculties of the 
various nations in Eastern Asia will soon be 
quickened into new activity. The Celestial 
Empire already begins to lose the spell which 
bound the Chinaman in the belief that it contains 
within itself every thing of value, and that every 
thing " on the outside" of its confines is barbarous 
and worthless. The new, but restless desire to 
learn the secret of our strength, when we have 
opened a new way to their doors, has already led 
thousands and thousands of Chinese to become resi- 
dents within our borders ; and when the Chinaman 



174 Recollections of 

comes he will soon be followed by others. When 
our country shall have become, as it is fast becoming, 
the great highway for the commercial wealth of the 
world, as it passes from nation to nation and from 
continent to continent, it will call to our shores 
myriads from North, South, East, and West, until 
every language shall be spoken, and every tribe 
and race of the human family shall be seen among 
us. The effect of such a state of things on the 
religious interests of mankind, was not overlooked 
by the "holy men of God, speaking as they were 
moved by the Holy Ghost." A commerce which 
will bring together countries now far distant from 
each other, a commerce which forms that very 
branch of enterprise and industry in which our 
nation is fast taking the lead, is distinctly described, 
in prophetic language, as yet to have a wide -felt 
influence in turning the whole earth to the Lord. 
" Surely the isles shall wait for me, and the ships 
of Tarshish first, to bring thy sons fi'om far, their 
silver and their gold with them, unto the name of 
the Lord thy God, and to the Holy One of 
Israel." 

When I look forward to that day, a day of 
such large, if not measureless means of doing good 



Persons and Events. 175 

'to mankind, yet to be intrusted to the Imnds of this 
nation, I admit that I " rejoice with trembling." 
It will bring with it a responsibility to God and to 
man for whicli we should be anxious to be well 
prepared. Many of our sainted fathers, as Ed- 
wards, Davies, and others, " after they had served 
their generation, by the will of God fell on sleep," 
cheered to their dying hour with the conviction 
that from the Churches in America the Gospel will 
be first exhibited, with that light and ])ower ^vhicli 
will subdue every nation, and kindred, and tongue, 
and people, to the obedience of faith. Events 
which they could little foresee seem to be prepar- 
ing the way for the fulfilment of their exp^ctations. 
Are Christians among us animated by a zeal which 
corresponds with these brightening indications of 
God's holy providence ? 

In the review of wbat has been lately done in 
our land for the sacred cause, we may Avell " thank 
God and take courage." But when we compare 
all that has been contributed, whether in men or 
means, with the hundreds of millions still re- 
maining in the darkness of Paganism, we may 
well ask, " What are these among so many ?" and 
should feel ourselves called to fresh earnestness in 



17G Recollections of 

praying "the Lord of the harvest to send forth 
laborers into his harvest." Let me add, that in 
contemplating what is yet to be done in order 
to meet our high responsibilities in the conversion 
of the vrorld, I have long desired to see a step 
taken which is essential to the right discharge of 
our duties. I care not much whether we are to 
have a separate Theological Seminary for the 
special training of our missionaries, or whether 
we shall superadd to our Seminaries now existing, 
a separate Department for the purpose : on some 
account, perhaps, the latter would be most advisa- 
ble. But no one who will carefully consider the 
subject can fail to realize the importance of giving 
to our missionaries an education or a trainino; 
adapted to the distinctive character of their 
work. The experience of the Church, both in 
England and on the Continent, as at Islington 
and Basle, has fully tested and demonstrated the 
importance of such a measure ; I rejoice to 
see that some of our Churches have recently 
formed their plans and are soliciting endowments 
for the object. God speed them ! The path 
before them is plain. We have men now in the 
missionary field, and men among our returned 



Persons and Events. 177 

missionaries, amply qualified to take a leading part 

as instructors in such Institutions. Let tliem be 

so employed, and the mantle of these Elijahs will 

fall on Elishas, who will go forth, anointed with a 

double portion of the Spirit, to " teach all nations, 

baptizing them in the name of the Father, the 

Son, and the Holy Ghost." 
12 



178 Recollections of 



CHAPTER XI 

Importance of the Medical Profession in Foreign Missions. 
— Our Lord's Miracles of Healing, as Signs of His Com 
iNG. — Luke, "the beloved Physician," as a Companion and 
Aid to Paul. — Dangers in the way of Medical Students. 
— Duty of Christians in reference to them. — Description 
OF an accomplished and successful Physician. 

In this age of Missions, and of general zeal for 
the conversion of the world, the instrumentality 
of the Medical Profession in the work seems to be 
too much overlooked. It should be remembered, 
that the miracles by which our Lord proved the 
divinity of His own mission, and the coming of 
His kingdom, were generally the miraculous 
healings of disease, rescuing the bodies of men 
from pain and deformity. When John the Bap- 
tist was anxious to obtain some decided proof that 
Jesus of Nazareth was indeed the promised 
Messiah, he sent, asking, " Art thou He that 
should come, or do we look for another ?" And 
the reply of our Lord to the message was, " Go 
and show John again those things that ye do hear 
and see ; the blind receive their sight, the lame 



Persons and Events. 179 

wiilk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead 
are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached 
to them ;" thus primarily and mainly referring to the 
displays of His power in removing disease from 
the body as a proof that He was indeed the Christ. 
Now why was this work made so prominent, as a 
token both of His character and His mission? 
Not dwelling on all the reasons for it, let us remem- 
ber that, by the very laws of our nature, he who 
relieves us from bodily suffering enlists our kind 
sympathies in his favor — secures almost the sanction 
of law to both his views and his wishes. Accord- 
ingly, you see from His history, that whether our 
Lord healed the sick, cleansed the leper, or gave 
sight to the blind, the relief bestowed usually 
inclined the man to follow Him. So we might 
expect it to be. It arises, as we see, from the 
essential sympathies of the heart, that when I feel 
myself either cured or convalescent under the 
skill of any man, he shall have not only my 
gratitude, but my confidence in many things, if not 
in all. He has made his way to the inner 
sanctuary of my bosom ; and if he is an enemy to 
religion, he may do infinite evil ; while, if he is a 
friend of Christ, he may do more than any other 



180 Recollections of 

man, unless it be tlie preacher of the Gospel, to 
lead me to the Saviour. Nor should even that 
exception be always made. The ministers of God's 
word are not always called in till it is too late — 
till the faculties are benumbed by the progress of 
disease, and by the approach of death. The phy- 
sician is there from the first — can note the earliest 
risings of an awakened conscience and that tender- 
ness of feeling which are the usual attendants of a 
sick-bed ; and, if he is faithful to improve his 
opportunity, good may be expected to follow which 
he alone could accomplish. I can speak from the 
experience of a life in the ministry of the Gospel 
somewhat prolonged, and I can say that if I ever 
saw the sick-bed sanctified to the sufferer, I have 
generally found that the physician had sowed the 
seed of divine truth, before I was of service to 
bring the fruit to maturity. 

But while the physician may thus do good in 
the Churches at home, his usefulness might be 
still more distinctly seen in the foreign field. It 
was so in Apostolic days. How emphatically is 
the profession of Luke marked in Sacred History ! 
Paul calls him "the beloved physician," and it 
seems the endearing appellation was not given to 



Persons and Events. 181 

him simply because he had written that portion of 
Scripture called the " Gospel according to Luke," 
but also for other deeds of his life and attributes 
of character which distinguished him as a devoted 
disciple of Christ. " Only Luke is with me," says 
Paul. And when did he say it ? When he was 
a prisoner in Rome, bound in chains, and when 
others had forsaken him and fled. But whoever 
might go, influenced by their love of the world, or 
their fear of man, Luke, it would seem, was still at 
the Apostle's side, to minister to his comfort, and 
help to sustain his spirit, burdened alike with his 
care of the Churches, and his sorrow over the 
faithlessness of those who had deserted him. Nor 
was it only while a prisoner at Rome that the 
Apostle wi'tnessed the fidelity of his " beloved 
physician." In his various journeyings, whether 
by sea or land, as when he first obeyed the cry 
from Macedon, " Come over and help us," making 
his first adventure in Europe, as a preacher of the 
Gospel ; or when he afterwards went up to 
Jerusalem, aware of the perils awaiting him there ; 
Luke seems to have been still with him, sharing 
his labors not only in speaking for Christ, as he 
found a fit season, but ministering as a physician in 



182 Recollections of 

healing the sick whenever they sought his aid, thus 
opening the way for the message of life, whether 
uttered by himself, or the great Apostle whom he 
accompanied. 

As the Church has now in hand the very work 
which was carried on by Paul when sent to pi'each 
to the Gentile world, we need for it the same 
instrumentality, if we would hope for like success. 
All who have the cause at heart ^should realize 
that our Missionary Stations can never be ade- 
quately or scripturally equipped till we have both 
the physician and the preacher— a Luke with a 
Paul laboring in the same field, animated by the 
same Spirit. On this point, too, the Church should 
learn wisdom from her past experience. She has 
felt the importance of the healing art in order 
properly to prepare the way for the spreading of 
the Gospel among the heathen ; but she has 
pursued a mistaken policy, which has sacrificed 
some of her choicest men to her error. She has 
sent her missionaries to our Medical Schools before 
sending them abroad, to qualify them for medical 
practice ; and too often, when in the field, they have 
fallen victims to labors which overtasked their 
strength in their efforts to do all that was required 



Persons and Events. 183 

of them. AVhat, for example, might be expected 
in our own country, where a man may enjoy all 
the advantasres of his native climate and other 
surroundings for his healtli and comfort, but the 
sacrifice of his life to his labors, if he should be 
required to fulfil the duties of a faithful minister of 
the Gospel, and also of a faithful physician ? Much 
more must it be so with the devoted missionary 
whose strength is wasted under a tropical sun, or 
amidst perpetual snows, or, at least, in a climate 
new to him, and the more trying to his physical 
constitution because suiTounded by other associa- 
tions peculiar to his calling that press heavily on 
his strength and spirits. It is high time that the 
Church should awake to new views, and a new 
standard of duty on this subject. She must give 
a new and wider range to her desires when she 
utters the petition that " the Lord w^ould send 
forth laborers into his harvest." We need young 
men from our Medical Schools, as well as from our 
Theological Seminaries, to turn their eyes to the 
heathen world and to address the Church with the 
oifer, " Here am I, send me." We want other 
" Lukes, beloved physicians," in our day, as well 
as other "Pauls, Apostles of the Gentiles," to 



184 Recollections of 

consecrate themselves to the work of tuniing the 
heathen from their idols to the living God. 

In view of these considerations we should give 
the Medical profession, and especially our Medical 
Schools, a higher place in our prayers, our sym- 
pathies, and our efforts for their moral welfare. 
Few of us, perhaps, have rightly contemplated the 
perils which beset the Medical Student while pur- 
suing his education. The place to which he must 
generally repair, because furnishing the best advan- 
tages for his studies, is the crowded city, where 
temptation to vice in every form waylays the 
young man at every step, and where, perhaps, 
ignorant of his danger, he is entangled, if not 
ruined, before he is aware. His acquaintance with 
his instructors is brief and temporary, perhaps 
never extending beyond the Lecture-room, with 
little or no opportunity for them, however anxious 
for it, to acquire any moral influence over his con- 
duct. The nature of his studies has a tendency to 
fix his thoughts on the body and bodily welfare of 
man, to the exclusion of the immortal soul, so as 
perhaps to beguile him, imperceptibly to himself, 
into materialism or some other form of partial 
infidelity ; a danger all the greater to a young man, 



Persons and Events. 185 

when he sees many of those who have been 
renowned in his future profession, cLassed among 
open infidels and scoffers. Nor are these perils 
which meet the young Medical student, such as he 
may easily avoid. They are inseparable in a great 
degree from his situation when seeking the advan- 
tages which may best qualify him for future useful- 
ness and eminence. I could give example after 
example, chronicled in the tears of broken-hearted 
parents and friends, showing how wide the ruin 
thus spread among our young men of brilliant tal- 
ents, high ambition, ay, known and noted for every 
thing good but the " one thing needful ;" and for 
the want of that " one thing needful," they fell. 

My former public relations having led me to 
see how wide-spread are these evils, I am the more 
anxious to see any and every measure heartily 
countenanced which may serve to guard or to 
rescue our young physicians from these dangers, 
often so fatal to themselves, and so fatal also 
to our hopes of good from their future lives. We 
are accustomed to make "the schools of the 
prophets" the subject of our earnest supplications 
before Heaven ; and well that it should be so. 
The character and spirit of the Gospel ministry are 



186 Recollections of 

always greatly affected by the influences brought 
to bear upon tlieir minds, while in early life they 
are being trained for their high office. It is in no 
small degree the same with those who are candi- 
dates for the profession I am now surveying. Let 
our future physicians feel that they are the objects 
of especial solicitude to the Christian community, 
and as a consequence which may be hoped to flow 
from this, let them feel the influence of enlightened 
piety themselves while pre]3aring for their high 
responsibilities as the guardians of public health ; 
and they will carry it with them to the sick-bed, 
to the chambers of death, carry it with them 
wherever they go ; and, wherever it is carried, it 
will be " as the dew of Hermon, as the dew that 
descended upon the mountains of Zion, for there 
the Lord commanded the blessing, even life for 
evermore." 

Let me picture such a physician ; such as I 
would desire to see going abroad to shed blessings 
on the minds and bodies of men. He should be a 
man well qualified for his work by study and 
observation, keeping up with the advancement 
constantly made both in the theory and practice of 
medical skill. He should be endued with a courage 



Persons and Events. 187 

that can look danger in the face calmly and coolly 
when he is called to encounter the malio;nant 
"pestilence that walketh in darkness," and should 
be so self-possessed as never to lose the best use 
of his faculties in those emergencies when life 
depends on his action at the moment. With all 
this firmness of character and purpose, he should 
combine the suavity and gentleness of spirit and 
manner that soothes .the pain which he cannot 
remove, the serene and cheerful face as he enters 
the sick room, which will tend to inspire that hope 
in the patient which often gives increased efficacy 
to the wisest prescriptions. He should also be so 
devoted to his duties that no weariness or aversion 
to exposure can keep him away from a sick bed 
where his presence and skill are required for the 
safety, perhaps the life of the sufferer. And then 
to all this I would add what can best finish the 
whole picture ; an intelligent and sincere piety 
that will look to Heaven for a blessing on the 
means he is using to accomplish a cure ; that will 
remember his suffering patient has a soul as well 
as a body calling for his sympathies ; and fiir from 
yielding to the strange delusion that there is any 
thing in the Gospel when fitly and rightly spoken 



188 Recollections of 

whicli can either augment or prolong disease, he 
will welcome the Gospel minister as a great aux- 
iliary in the work he has himself undertaken, well 
knowing that the balm of Gilead, which gives rest 
to the anxious spirit, always does much to allay the 
fever which is wasting away the fountains of life. 
And once more, he should be a man who, having 
done all that can be done, and yet sees his 
patient sinking and dying, will feel that every 
death he witnesses is a new argument to prompt 
him to increased diligence in all his duties, as 
he knows not how soon he himself may be called 
to follow those whom he has seen passing into 
that eternity which awaits us all. 

Such physicians there have been, and such 
there are now; and when all physicians shall be 
such, a bright day will dawn on the Church 
and on the world, and a new brightness will 
also enter into the chamber of pain and disease. 



Persons and Events. 189 



CHAPTER XII. 

University of the City of ^ew York. — Considerations 
which led to the establishment of it. literary conven- 
TION. — Address at its opening. — Inauguration of Profes- 
sors. — Addresses on the occasion. — Erection of the 
University building. — Grant from the Legislature. — 
Resignation of the Chancellorship. — Action of the Council 

ON THE occasion. ReVIEW OF LEADING AND DISTINGUISHING 

FEATURES OF THE UNIVERSITY. ADVANTAGES OF NeW YoRK 

as the SITE OF SUCH AN INSTITUTION. DANGERS TO PUBLIC 

MEN FROM EXCESSIVE LaBORS. 

The establishment of a University in the City 
of New York was the subject of deliberation some 
time before definite action was taken or an applica- 
tion made to the public on its behalf. The measure 
had been urged on our citizens by gentlemen in 
various parts of our country, as an achievement 
befitting our position as the commercial metropolis 
of the nation and the central point of much of its 
wealth and intelligence. There were at the same 
time various considerations arising among ourselves 
which tended to awaken general interest in the 
subject. Our Public Schools were constantly 
developing fine intellect among the youth of our 



]90 Recollections of 

people, but wlio from the want of opportunity or 
means, could not pursue their studies beyond the 
limits of Common School education ; and it was 
deemed advisable to create an Institution embra- 
cing numerous Foundations or Scholarships on 
which such young men might be placed for the 
prosecution of a more finished education. Many 
also who were the sons of our able and wealthy 
citizens wished to prosecute theii* studies in the 
higher branches of Learning not usually taught in 
our Colleges, and for this purpose were obliged to 
resort to foreign countries. A University deserv- 
ing the name, if established in our own City, 
would furnish them with all the advantages they 
required in this respect without the necessity of 
going abroad. The Philosophy of Education, 
whether in our Common Schools or higher Sem- 
inaries of Learning, was thought to have more 
importance than had been usually attached to it, 
and we felt that a Chair devoted to it might be 
advantageously established. Our Artists also, as 
our Sculptors and Painters, had not yet received 
the patronage befitting the imj)ortance of the Fine 
Arts, and many of their friends desired to furnish 
them with increased facilities for concentrating their 



Persons and Events. 191 

efforts, and exhibiting their skill to the public. 
<3ur City, consisting of so large a resident and 
transient population, presenting disease in every 
form ; and its immense commercial transactions 
constantly carrying important questions of Law 
into our Courts, was thought to furnish advantages 
for Professional education in Law and Medicine 
which might be rendered more available. The 
Profession of the merchant was considered as 
having been too much overlooked in systems of 
liberal education. Commerce has, in our day, 
created an empire of its own. It has a sway in 
the councils of Cabinets, and in the movements 
of armies that no empire or nation can disregard ; 
and it ous-ht to have men trained for its leaders, 
that have enjoyed every advantage for acquiring 
enlarged and just ideas of the history, the laws, 
the morals, and the ends of Commerce. The 
commercial character of our City, as well as the 
intrinsic importance of the thing itself, it" was said, 
made it fittino; and rig-ht that in a scheme of 
extended education in New York, provision 
should be made for instruction in all these varied 
aspects and relations of a pursuit so interwoven 
with the best interests of our land. It was also 



192 Recollections of 

said that, especially in a country like ours, where 
practical utility is so much valued, courses of 
instruction should be opened in which the applica- 
tions of Science to all the great pursuits of life, 
should receive a larger share of attention than was 
then usual in our Colleges. It had likewise been 
observed that there was a growing taste in the 
community for Public Lectures ; and it was 
deemed important to meet this demand by estab- 
lishing Lectureships to be filled by men, who had 
devoted their particular attention to such branches 
of instruction as might be assigned to them. And 
though last, not least, when arrangements had 
been made for all these various departments of 
knowledge, it was believed that a complete system 
of education should embody careful provision to 
sanctify knowledge as well as to enlarge its 
boundaries; and to show that the discoveries of 
Science, so far from conflicting with Religion, can 
' be arrayed around her altars, both to illustrate their 
glory, and to insure their safety against the 
assaults of Infidelity. 

As these views were constantly acquiring new 
weight among us, at the request of several 
gentlemen, in December, 1829, I invited a meeting 



Persons and Events. 193 

of a few friends at iny lionse, when tlie outline 
of a plan embracing these various objects was 
laid before tliem. The result was a resolution 
to call a more public meeting, and to sul)mit 
the whole matter to tlieir deliberation, and to 
learn how far our citizens would give their 
support to such an Institution. The meeting em- 
braced many of our most prominent citizens, 
and the response was very prompt and cordial. 
Committees were appointed on various subjects 
connected with our design, and an appeal Avas 
made throucfh the Press to the Public for their 
aid and co-operation. It was also resolved to 
raise one hundred thousand dollars, as an 
incipient endowment, and when this sum should 
be secured, the contributors to elect a Council or 
Corporators to w^liom the management of the 
Institution should be entrusted. Measures were at 
the same time taken to unite such existing Institu- 
tions as the Lyceum of Natural History and the 
Historical Society with the University, so as to 
furnish it with the advanta2:es of a valuable Cabi- 
net and Library at the outset. 

In the mean time, we all felt that the magni- 
tude of the undertaking required caution and 
13 



194 Recollections of 

very careful deliberation. There were some who 
doubted the possibility of so adjusting the different. 
Departments contemplated as to make them work 
harmoniously in one Institution. We had no 
existing model in this respect from which we 
could copy, and in which our plan had been 
fairly and successfully tested; and in order to 
obtain all the light within our reach, the Council, 
soon after their election, determined to call a 
Literary Convention for the purpose of obtaining 
such views from well informed scholars as might 
be of use to us. Invitations were accordingly 
addressed to literary institutions and to individuals 
throughout the country distinguished for their 
learning, and especially for their full acquaintance 
with the systems of liberal education pursued 
both in our own and foreign countries. The 
Convention met in October, 1830. There was a 
very general attendance of all who had been 
invited, and several of those who were unable to 
be present sent written communications on ques- 
tions which they wished to bring before the 
Convention. As a proof of the interest felt in our 
object, the City Authorities gave us the use of 
the Common Council Chamber; and it is due to 



Persons and Events. 195 

the gentlemen composing the Convention to say 
tliat I liave never seen an assembly of equal 
numbers which comprised more intelligence and 
character. The Council of the University had 
appointed a Committee consisting of Hon. A. 
Gallatin, Dr. Wainwright, and myself, to prepare 
an address to the Convention at the commencement 
of their deliberations; and as Chairman of the 
Committee, I presented to them the following 
statement of our views and of subjects to be 
submitted to their consideration. 

"Mr. PfiEsmENT AND Gentlemen of the Convention: 

" It has been highly gratifying to learn how 
generally the late movements in this City, on the 
subject of Education and Letters have met with 
the approbation of wise and good men through- 
out the nation. Much as our country owes to 
her excellent Colleges, the sentiment seems to be 
general, that the time has arrived when she calls 
for something more ; when she requires Institu- 
tions which shall give increased maturity to her 
Literature, and also an enlarged diffusion to the 
blessings of Education ; and which she may 



196 Recollections of 

present to the world as maintaining an honorable 
competition with the Universities of Europe. By 
general consent, too, it has been considered that 
it is both the duty and the privilege of New 
York to be, at least, one of the places which 
should lead the way in this noble work ; and for 
reasons that are equally obvious and urgent. 

" This City is the commercial metropolis of 
the land ; and we owe it to the nation which is 
enrichins: us with its commerce, to be foremost 
in creatino; and sustainins; those institutions which 
are indispensable to make knowledge and science 
keep pace with our wealth. We owe it also to 
ourselves. According to the Mythology of the 
ancients, it was the same Divinity who presided 
over wisdom and the liberal arts, who, in her 
zeal for commerce, presented to the Argonauts, 
the prophetic tree from the forest of Dodona, 
which should guide and protect them in their 
pursuit of the Golden Fleece; and there is a 
wisdom in the fable, which shows that the sages 
who invented it, well understood how the various 
pursuits of men should be combined. Commerce 
should ever be considered as inseparably allied to 
science and the arts, and when they have been 



Persons and Events. 197 

divorced iroin eacli otlier, the consequence has 
always been disastrous to . both ; — commerce, and 
the wealth that follovrs it, rendering a community 
selfish and contracted, while science languishes 
for the ^vant of that support and countenance 
which liberal wealth alone can bestow. But 
when this alliance is sustained, we have only to 
look at the commercial cities of Italy, to see the 
happy result. It was Venice and other marts on 
the shores of the Adriatic, that first rescued the 
arts from the graves in which they had long been 
entombed by the rude Goth; and drew back the 
fabled Minerva to resume hei- abode in a land, 
once her favorite home, but where her monuments 
and temples had long been shattered or crumbled 
into dust. 

" It may be added, as another reason for commen- 
cing this enterprise in our City, that the legitimate 
object of a University is not only the education 
of youth, but the fuller development of the minds 
of men ; and for this object, the dense and nu- 
merous population of a city creates advantages that 
are incalculably important. Intellectual commun- 
ion is so much desired by all men, and especially 
by the learned, that it is only when the dis- 



/ 



/ 



198 Recollections of 

tinguished proficients in any department of knowl- 
edge can so cluster together as to form a world of 
their own, and thus stimulate each other in their 
common pursuits, that conspicuous excellence can 
be most successfully developed. The greatest 
scholars and artists who now adorn the Halls of 
Science in London and Paris, would never have 
grown to their giant stature, had they been scat- 
tered among the villages or hamlets of France and 
England. Feeling themselves alone in their views, 
the sense of solitude of itself would, in some 
degree, have palsied their powers, and have induced 
them either to abandon their aim, or relax in their 
high pursuits. But in the variety of intellectual 
worlds which a populous City furnishes the means 
of creating, they have found, that as 'iron sharpen- 
eth iron, so doth the countenance of a man his 
friend.' It is in this contact of mind with mind, 
that these men of renown have become their 
country's ornaments, and blessings to the world. 

" Besides these advantages and responsibilities 
common to all great commercial cities, there are 
other circumstances belonging to the state of 
letters in New York, that strongly invited us to 
the establishment of a University in this city 



Persons and Events. 199 

witliout delay. To quote a fact from a valuable 
communication hereafter to be laid before this 
assembly, — ' A very few years ago, the govern- 
ment of Bavaria opened a University in Munich, 
a city not much more than one third as large as 
New York ; but as former ages had already collec- 
ted there, hospitals, a very valuable museum, a 
magnificent library and other fixtures, the establish- 
ment, within a year after its formation, went into 
successful operation. So, too, at Berlin, a city by 
far the largest in Northern Germany, yet inferior 
to New York in wealth, business and population ; 
a royal library, hospitals, a most admirable cabinet 
of Natural History, were at once given to lend a 
lustre to the rising University, and its growth into 
celebrity was sure and rapid. But it took nearly 
a century to bring Gottingen to its present high 
distinction — inasmuch as the materiel of knowledge 
was not furnished to its hand.' 

" It is in the power of a University in this city, 
to avail itself of the advantages which have 
operated so propitiously at Munich and Berlin. 
There are here various literary associations tliat 
have either languished or failed to reach the 
distinction they both deserved and desired, for the 



200 Recollections of 

want of close alliance and mutual support. ' Union 
is strength' — -and on the broad foundation, now 
laid, these various institutions have already become 
so far united, as to accj^uire strength themselves; 
while at the same time, they furnish a gi'eat 
amount of means to the University which unites 
them, by which it can enlarge and hasten its 
usefulness to the community. The Lyceum of 
Natural History, with a promptness and unanimity 
which have always characterized its proceedings, 
led the way in this important movement ; and has 
thus furnished a liberal endowment for improve- 
ment in that interesting department of knowledge. 
The Historical Society next followed, and has thus 
brought to the University a Library, which is 
invaluable to the Civil Historian. The Directors of 
the New York Athenaeum have also unanimously 
resolved to accept of the proffer made to them by 
the University ; and wait only for a vote of the 
Patrons, as to the amount of their capital which 
should be invested in books to enlarge their 
present collection, in order to conclude the contem- 
plated union. It is believed too, that other 
Societies, actuated by an enlightened regard to 
their own usefulness, and the public good, will 



PERSONS' AND EvENTS. 201 

follow these conspicuous examples ; and thus may 
these various Institutions, which, however excellent 
in themselves, have lain hitherto like scattered or 
disunited columns, be erected into a Temple of 
Science, equally perfect and magnificent as a 
whole, and harmonious in the adaptation of its 
parts. 

" Let it not be imagined, that these hopes, 
sanguine as they may appear, are wild and 
visionary. We indeed have acted, and we intend 
to act on the maxim, that 'if we expect great 
things, we must attempt great things ;' and thus 
far, our attempts have been crowned with success, 
and our expectations have been realized. ' Eome 
was not built in a day ;' and we have not been so 
unwise, and so little acquainted with the nature of 
our work, as to expect to create a University, 
complete throughout all its parts, in one or two 
years. We feel that we have yet much to do ; 
much to do in ad dins; increased means to the 
Institution ; and also much to do in devising and 
maturing a system of government and instruction, 
adapted to the state and wants of our country. It 
is on these toj)ics that we are desirous of having 
the views of such gentlemen as are here present; 



202 Recollections of 

and we have been induced to invite tMs meeting 
believing that we should both enjoy and bestow 
a benefit by the measure. Whatever knowledge 
any of us can throw into the common stock 
must be for the advantage not of one Institution, 
but of all with which any of us may be particu- 
larly connected. 

" In this age of the world, distinguished by 
what some men, in ridicule, and others in serious- 
ness, term ' the march of mind,' it cannot be 
disguised that the interests of literature are some- 
what jeopardized by the very efforts made to 
improve them. Innovators are not always bene- 
factors, as the world has often learned by painful 
experience ; and there is great danger, lest the 
spirit of reform, now so active, may sweep away 
many of the old and venerable landmarks which 
ought to be preserved. In our review of what 
literature has been, we should rather inquire, 
not what can be relinquished, but what can 
be usefully retained ; and while we bring every 
thing to the test of practical utility, whether 
old or new, let us not forget that it is the 
most precious seed that is sometimes longest 
in producing its invaluable fruits. On eveiy 



Persons and Events. 203 

subject, however, that may come before us, it 
is the general wish that all opinions should be 
freely expressed. If they collide, so be it. The 
collision is nothing more than that of minds 
honestly aiming at the same great end. Let 
every sentiment be advanced with the purpose 
' valeat quantum valere potest.^ It is only by 
'proving all things,' that we can 'hold fast that 
which is good;' and should we pursue the 
object of this meeting, with this fi'ank and 
fearless spu'it, the result cannot fail to be haj^py. 
"Let me cono-ratulate all who are now before 
me, that on so short a notice, our assembly is 
so respectably and numerously attended. We 
may view it as an earnest of His favor 'from 
whom all holy desires, all good counsels, and all 
just works do proceed ;' and before whom we 
have united in presenting our prayers for His 
presence and direction in our deliberations. From 
the first, it was contemplated that this meeting 
should be introductory to others which should 
draw together in still greater numbers our leading 
men in the republic of letters ; and judging from 
the auspicious appearance of this day, why may 
not science hereafter expect to have in our land her 



204 Recollections of 

council of Ampliictyons, whose decisions sliall 
become as venerated and as useful, as were those 
of the venerable sages, to whom Greece, in her 
best days, rendered an homage that was alike the 
glory of those who gave and of those who received 
it." 

The Convention continued in session for several 
days with increasing interest to the last, and was 
the occasion of drawing out information and 
suggestions on the educational wants of the nation, 
which were at once published, and were sub- 
sequently acknowledged to be of valuable service 
both to the University and to other Seminaries of 
Learning. 

Encouraged by these multiplying proofs of 
public favor, the Council proceeded to obtain a 
Charter from the Legislature. The Charter was 
granted with much unanimity, and as a first step 
towards organization, officers of the Council and 
a Chancellor were appointed. 

When the Chancellorship was tendered to me, 
I was perplexed as to my duty by various con- 
siderations. It was my haj^piness at the time to 
be Pastor of a Church which had shown an attach- 



Persons and Events. 205 

iiieut to me, perhaps not often surpassed; and they 
feared that if I accepted an office requiring so 
much care, labor, and time, my attachment to them 
miglit l)e weakened, and my health, if not my life, 
be sacrificed by the weight of my duties in the 
double responsibility of Pastor and Chancellor. 
On the other hand, the fiiends of the University 
urged my acceptance, as I was familiar with the 
whole scheme of the Institution from its inception, 
and must be supposed to know how to carry out 
its several Departments to completion, and at the 
same time give unity to it as a whole. At length, 
with the understanding that I should be at liberty 
to retire from the Institution when organized and 
in operation, my fi'iends in the Church consented to 
my acceptance of the Chancellorsliip ; and at tlie 
same time, lest my health should suffer from labor 
beyond my strength, they kindly resolved to call 
an associate Pastor for my aid. With this under- 
standing as to the duration of my labors in tlie 
University, I accepted the appointment. 

There was another source of anxiety when I 
contemplated the duties and responsibilities of the 
office. Mere under-graduate instruction as taught in 
most of our Colleges was but a part, rather a small 



206 Recollections of 

part, of the scheme we had devised for the 
University ; and one hundred thousand dollars was 
but a moiety of an adequate endowment. The 
question naturally arose, " Will the Public furnish 
the means of doing all we contemplated ?" I knew 
that we had among the first patrons of the Uni- 
versity some of the most liberal and noble-heart- 
ed men in our City, on whose continued co-operation 
and liberality we might rely to the end. But might 
not some sudden and serious commercial convulsion 
arise, which would impair the ability of even 
the most generous to assume new responsibilities ; 
and might not others grow impatient if we should 
fail to secure new friends to the enterprise ? Judg- 
ing from his own generous heart, Dr. Wainwright 
with those who sympathized with him, was 
sanguine. Mr. Gallatin, with the habitual caution 
of the man, was not so certain. As for myself, I 
could not avoid feeling some distrust ; but I still 
cherished belief in our final success. My mind had 
always turned to a grant from the State as a 
means of giving increased confidence to the friends 
already enlisted in our cause, and of awakening a 
more general interest in our welfare. I was 
greatly encouraged by conferences which I had 



Persons and Events. 207 

witli the various State Authorities, and the final 
and unaninious conclusion was to make a beginning. 
Accordingly, in the Autumn of 1832, Professors 
were inaugurated to fill the following Chairs, viz. : 

Evidences of Revealed Religion. 

Intellectual and Moral Philosophy and Belles 
Lettres. 

Mathematics and Astronomy. 

Natural Philosophy, Architecture, and Civil 
Engineering. 

Chemistry, Mineralogy, and Botany. 

Sculpture and Painting. 

Greek and Oriental Languages and Literature. 

Hebrew Lano-uao^e and Literature. 

Latin arid Greek Languages and Literature. 

German Lano-uasje and Literature. 

Spanish Language and Literature. 

Italian Language and Literature. 

French Language and Literature. 

Lectui'ers were also announced as having been 
appointed by the Council, on 

History, Geography, and Chronology. 

History of Commerce, Agriculture, and Me- 
chanic Arts. 



208 Recollections of 

Sacred Antiquities. 
Physical Astronomy. 

The Rev. Dr. Milnor acted as President of the 
Council at the ceremony of Inauguration, and at 
the same time delivered the following pertinent 
Address : 

" In performing, Fellow Citizens, theduty which 
has been devolved upon me by my resj^ected Col- 
leagues in the Council of the University of the 
City of New York, it will not become me, nor 
would I presume to anticipate that full exposition 
of the merits of this interesting enterprise, which 
will be made by its presiding Officer. 

" Its objects, and the mode of their accomplish- 
ment, fully as to principle, and with a sufficient 
degree of clearness and precision as to the details 
of its intended operations, have been stated in 
various successive publications. Those to whom 
have been confided the incipient labors of the under- 
taking, have been desirous that the most intelli- 
gible and frank exj)lanations of their views and 
intentions should be placed before the Public. 
Since the constitution of a responsible Council by 



Persons and Events. 209 

the snffraojes of the Contributors, the members of 
that body deemed this to be required, by duty to 
their constituents, and respect to the great commu- 
nity on which this Institution rests its hopes of 
success. 

"The developments thus made have exhibited 
it as a design of a far more comprehensive cliar- 
acter than this metropolis has yet witnessed. Tlie 
amazing and constant increase of its population, the 
growing desire of many in all classes of society for 
intellectual culture, and the immense advantage of 
multiplying facilities for the scientific, literary, 
moral, and religious instruction of the young, led 
to the formation of the liberal and enlarged plan 
of a University, whose arrangements should be 
liable to no just exception on the part of any, and 
should accommodate the wants of all. With no 
invidious or unkind feeling towards existing Sem- 
inaries of Learning, it was thought practicable to 
furnish in various departments of the same institu- 
tion, young men whose intended pursuits in life 
might be considered not to require the acquisition 
of classical learning, with the means of a thorough, 
education in other interesting branches; and such 
whose inclinations, talents, and expectations might 
14 



210 Recollections of 

lead to desires more extensive, not only witL the 
portion of learning usually dispensed in colleges; 
but, if desired, with that more exalted measure of 
attainment, especially in classical studies afforded 
by the most eminent Seats of Learning in the 
transatlantic world. 

"So powerful has been the impression on the 
minds of many that this City should possess a 
Seminary formed on so grand a scale, and that 
the munificence of its favored inhabitants would 
speedily supply the funds required for its erection 
and support, that, in huml^le dependence on the 
Divine blessing, it has been determined, even with 
a subscription rather commenced than completed, 
no longer to delay the actual commencement of its 
duties. However expedient it might have seemed 
to postpone this measure until the erection of the 
Edifice, which will ere long accommodate its labors, 
and ornament our City, there has been indicated an 
impatience in the public mind for a beginning of 
the work of instruction, to which the Council is 
now happy to have it in its power to yield. We 
desire to be grateful to Him on whose favor this 
and every human undertaking depends, that we 
have been able to surmount many difficulties, and 



Persons and Events. 2H 

especially the interruption of our efforts by the 
prevalence of epidemic sickness. Whether it 
regard the character desired in Professors, the 
sufficiency in number of pupils ready for matricula- 
tion, or the accommodations requisite for the 
instruction of our classes, we have reason to believe 
that the wishes of our patrons \vill be happily met. 
We are persuaded that if high moral and literary 
qualifications in Professors, a faithful attention to 
their duties, and a careful, unremitted oversight on 
the part of the Council, will secure the approbation 
of a liberal and enlightened community, we have 
reason to entertain the most sanguine hopes. On 
one subject connected with this great design, T 
trust I may be indulged one or two remarks, before 
I proceed to introduce to this respected audience, 
the Gentlemen who are to sustain the rank of Pro- 
fessors and instructors of the youth committed to 
the charge of this University. 

" If the advancement of the interests of science 
and literature be a subject of great concern to the 
lover of his country, if he be a Christian Patriot, 
his gratification w^ill be enhanced in proportion as 
efforts for that purpose are conducted under the 
sanction and obligations of religion. Instead of 



I 



212 Recollections of 



deriving pleasure from seeing Seminaries of learn- 
ing rising uj) with a ]3rofessed independence of this 
essential property, or a doubtful estimate of its 
importance, lie would see in every such attempt a 
machinery calculated to undermine the very foun- 
dations of human happiness, and aim a destructive 
blow at the best securities of national liberty, and 
social peace and order. Contemporaneously, there- 
fore, with the earliest movements in that under- 
taking, to the active prosecution of whose duties 
this evenino-'s exercises will be the introduction, its 
originators contemplated its being made, not a 
sectarian but a Christian University. All the 
measures preparatory to its organization have been 
conducted with a steady view to this principle. 
Without tendering the most satisfactory assurances 
for its maintenance, we would not presume to look 
to a Christian Community for countenance and aid. 
While the provisions of the Charter of the Univer- 
sity guard with sedulous care against the predomi- 
nance of any particular Denomination in its affairs, 
and its instructions will have no reference to the 
existing varieties of polity and doctrine, it will 
hold up with unshaken firmness a Standard against 
Infidelity, and encourage its pupils in the acquisi- 



Persons and Events. 213 

tion of a Christian hope, and the practice of the 
duties of a Christian life. By im1)uing their minds 
with the well-grounded claims of the Sacred Scrip- 
tures to their full belief, by the introduction of the 
Bible as a Classic, and so conducting our students 
to a knowledge of its incomparable literature and 
interesting antiquities, and by exhibiting its con- 
tents as furnishing a divinely revealed rule of 
human duty, and the only guide to happiness 
beyond the grave, we hope to be continually found 
auxiliaries in the cause of Christianity, and instru- 
ments in promoting its desired influence upon the 
hearts and lives of men. Our University, we trust, 
will exhibit the entire practicability of uniting as 
full a regard to the claims of piety as prevails in 
any of the literary institutions that adorn and bless 
our favored country, with an entire avoidance of 
infringement on the peculiarities of any of the 
Sects, into which it is divided. It is not our 
province to condemn the establishment, where it is 
deemed expedient, by particular Denominations, of 
Institutions having more or less in view the pro- 
motion of their own immediate interests. But it is 
believed entirely possible, nay, pre-eminently desi- 
rable, that in an age distinguished for so much 



214 Recollections of 

generous feeling and united effort among Christians, 
there should be, in such a wealthy, rapidly improv- 
ing Metropolis as ours, at least one great Institu- 
tion of the kind now commending itself to public 
support, framed on such catholic principles as to 
offend the predilections of no candid mind, and yet 
essentially subserving the practical ends at which 
it professes to aim. We have confidence in this 
well designed experiment. We think it worthy of 
universal approbation ; and under this persuasion, 
solicit for it your co-operation and your prayers. 
The full organization of all the contemplated 
Faculties has not yet been effected; but the 
progress made in a work so arduous and delicate, 
will, we trust, evince no remissness on the part of 
the Council in their efforts to present our Univer- 
sity, at its outset, in the most advantageous 
light possible to a discerning Public." 

The following Address, which I had been 
appointed to deliver on the occasion as a response 
from the Professors to the Council, exhibits views 
of the Executive Officers, when taking charge of 
the Institution, which were considered at the time 
as both important and seasonable. 



Persons and Events. 215 

Mr. President and mescbebs of the Ootjnoil : 

The rise of a University in the midst of any com- 
munity creates an important era in its history. It 
must be felt, for good or for evil, in all the interests 
and relations of society, whether civil or religious. 
If its foundations are wisely laid, and the super- 
structure wisely raised, and if the whole is 
animated by that living Spirit which was seen 
moving the wheels in the vision of the prophet, 
such an Institution becomes a fountain of health 
and safety to the public mind ; and coming 
generations will call the memory of its foundei*s 
blessed. Such have been the views of cities and 
countries in the Old World which have been most 
distino-uished both in arts and in arras. When 
Leyden had sustained the memorable siege which 
rendered her a theme of praise and wonder 
throughout Europe, the Prince of Orange, it is said, 
was carried fi'om his sick-bed to the heroic city, 
that he mio-ht bestow on the inhabitants a boon 
which it became a Prince like him to give, and a 
people like them to receive. He offered them the 
choice of either freedom from taxation, or the 
establishment of a University. They wisely chose 



216 Recollections of 

the latter, and the renown and intelligence wliich 
it brought to their city showed the wisdom of 
their choice. We may very properly add, it was 
in the University of Leyden that many of those 
divines and statesmen who have contributed to lay 
the foundations of our own City, were educated 
for usefulness and fame. 

There are circumstances, however, connected 
with the commencement of the Institution which 
has assembled on this evening that are peculiarly 
interesting and momentous to us as a Community. 
Every individual who is called to act in the 
theatre of life must expect to pass through a 
period which is a crisis in the formation of his 
moral and intellectual character; and just accord- 
ing as a propitious and powerful influence is then 
exercised upon him, will his future career be happy, 
if not brilliant. It has been cogently, though per- 
haps quaintly said, the youth is father to the man ; 
and if the faculties of youth are not moulded 
and formed aright, before they have stiffened into 
the rigidity of manhood, reformation always is 
rare, and never is complete. 

The same is true of Communities. Change is a 
law of their being also, and they pass through all 



Persons and Events. 217 

the stages of it, from youth to manhood, and 
from manhood to age. If, in early life, an 
influence is exerted on them which tends to 
liberalize and enlighten the public mind, and to 
infuse into it those healing and elevating habits of 
thinking and acting, which acquaintance with the 
truths of science and revelation alone can impart ; 
we should see arise before us cities and countries 
combining all the delicacy and beauty of the 
Grecian age, with the strong and enduring worth 
of a better, because a Christian era. 

The most casual observer must see that our 
City has arrived at this crisis in its history. It is 
now not only in its youth, but a youth much 
overgrown for its years. It has shot up with a 
rapidity -that defies calculation, numbering in its 
population, multitudes from every quarter of our 
globe which are not yet assimilated into a common 
character or animated by a common spirit. Our 
intellectual character is yet, in a great degree, to be 
formed ; our community is yet in that plastic state 
in which it cannot remain long, but must soon 
become set either to our honor or dishonor. 

Who then does not see the great importance of 
the intellectual and moral cultivation that should 



218 Recollections of 

now be bestowed on this city, tlie great Metropo- 
lis, not only of this nation, but of this western 
world ? Evils that may fasten upon us now in the 
short space of a day, may require the labors of 
centuries to remove ; for they would grow with our 
growth and strengthen with our strength. And 
for the same reason, is every taste and habit of 
moral and intellectual improvement, that may now 
be formed, of incalculable worth to us. They 
will become identified with our being, and be lost 
only when we ourselves shall be no more. 

Hence the importance of an Institution like 
this, and at this time — an Institution that is 
designed to unite in cordial fraternity with others 
in giving a new impulse to the spread of knowl- 
edge, and in carrying the literary character of our 
country to maturity and perfection. 

We are aware that broad and enlarged as our 
scheme of instruction is, it has been thought by 
some impracticable, to lie beyond the age and 
circumstances in which we are placed. So has it 
always been said by some men concerning every 
thing new and great. So was it said of Columbus, 
when he embarked in the discovery of a New 
Continent. So was it said of Fulton when he first 



Persons and Events. 219 

attempted uavigation by steam. So was it said 
of Clinton when he identified his name with the 
Great Western Canal. But what has the result 
proved ? There are men who seem born to be 
doubters, and who must be left to labor in their 
vocation. But there are men also of ingenuous 
and honorable minds, who may have questioned 
the seasonableness and practicability of this enter- 
prise, who will be glad to learn, as they see its pro- 
gress, that they had been in error, and who will be 
the readiest to own that now is the time which calls 
for a University like this, and especially entitles it 
to their confidence and co-operation. Such ac- 
cessions to its friends, we are happy to say, it is 
daily making. 

But in order the more fully to satisfy the public 
mind, it is proper on the present occasion, to show 
what are some of the principal features of the 
Institution which is now presented to them. 

As to its religious character, it is Christian, and 
is taken from the broad foundation of Christian 
truth as revealed in the Bible. It is not Sectarian. 
There are men who perhaps would call it so, for 
there are men with whom every thing is Sectarian, 
but infidelity and iireligion ; with whom the Bible 



220 Recollections of 

is a Sectarian Book, and the Most Higli Himself a 
Sectarian Divinity. " Non tali auxillo nee defen- 
sorihus istis^'' is this Institution to rise and to be 
sustained. With their present views, we neither 
court their approbation nor expect it, much as we 
may desire to benefit them or their sons. But in 
the eyes of a vast majority of an intelligent 
community like ours, it is well understood that 
sect is one thing and Christianity another ; and the 
line of distinction between them is every day 
becoming broader and deeper. Accordingly, while 
the University .will do nothing to subserve the 
objects of sect, and respecting which good men will 
differ and will agree to differ, yet does it avow its 
purpose distinctly to hold up the Bible as the 
inspired revelation of God's will, to hold up its 
moral law as the only rule of duty, and its Divine 
Author as the only hope of a lost world. 

In one respect, I may say, it intends to go 
farther than is usual on sacred ground. As a 
classic containing examples of the most coiTect and 
perfect taste in letters, and as a depository of 
learning in which the stores of science lie embalmed 
and consecrated, the Bible has not been suffi- 
ciently a subject of study in many of our seats of 



Persons and Events. 22.1 

learning. I have no doubt this is one reason why 
so many of our learned men have either rejected 
the Holy Book, or have regarded it with entire 
indifference. In the halls of science where their 
minds were formed, they saw it treated too much 
as a book that was to be laid on the shelf, and they 
had been led to condemn or neglect it without 
examining it. Whereas, had they been carefully 
instructed in even the literary excellencies of the 
Scriptures, they might have learned in those tints 
of glory which adorn the bow of promise, to revere 
the hand of Him who made it and who spread it 
forth. 

In this and in other ways, will the University 
aim to combine the salutary influence of religious 
knowledge with the enlargement and cultivation 
of the mind in the wide field of science and of 
letters. And without this influence superadded, do 
what we may to impart knowledge, we do more 
evil than good both to our students and the world. 
The intellectual powers of the greater part of man- 
kind lie comparatively dormant from the cradle to 
the grave. But when you educate the man, when 
you awake and elicit his faculties, you have aroused 
powers that ^^'ill be ceaseless and irresistible in 



222 Recollections of 

their action ; and I can imagine no state of society 
worse than where a community becomes knowing, 
acute and active, and yet destitute of the restraints 
and directions arising from moral cultivation. You 
may create stars in such a firmament ; but like the 
star in the Apocalypse, when they fall into the foun- 
tains of health among men, they turn them into 
wormwood and death. You may raise up 
Samsons, but they are Samsons without eyes ; and 
though in their gigantic strength they may work 
wonders, yet will they be wonders of ruin and 
desolation, alike destructive to themselves and to 
all within their reach. 

Such are our views briefly expressed on this 
important subject, and in accordance with which 
we intend to act. For, while as the friends both of 
religion and of civil power, we deprecate every 
approach to a union of Church and State, yet do 
we view the alliance of Religion and Learning as 
indispensable to the well-being of both. 

The place to be assigned to Classical Literature, 
and how it is to be cultivated, next demand a few 
observations. You are aware that on this subject, 
a discussion has arisen that is absorbing more and 
more of public attention in the world of letters. 



Persons and Events. 223 

Mucli as the Heathen Classics are to be admired as 
models of composition, for their lucid arrangement 
of thought, for their purity of diction, for their 
command over every power of the imagination 
and the heart, yet are they debased by such 
gross immorality, such v^ild and yet insinuating 
denials of the true God, that it begins to be 
questioned whether there is not more evil than 
good derived from the study of them. There are 
those, I know, who can affect to despise this 
question, and whose constant cry is, "Great is 
Diana of the Ephesians, — Great is Diana of the 
Ephesians," and is uttered with as much intoler- 
ance and impatience as were manifested by the 
Ephesian multitudes in the days of the Apostles. 

But the question still must be met, and it is 
one of the good indications of moral feeling in our 
day, that it has been raised. It is not denied that 
the minds of our youth have been improved by the 
study of the Classics ; nor do I think it would be 
desirable to seal up these Castalian fountains, forbid- 
ding students to approach them. But that evil has 
resulted from these polished authors of antiquity 
as they are too generally studied, is a fact that 
cannot be denied; nor is the evil the less because 



224 Recollections of 

not developing itself at once on tlie moral feelings 
of our youth, or not plainly perceptible when it 
first influences the heart. There is a reflected light 
diffused from Christianity that influences silently 
many who are not really Christians, but who live 
in constant contact with its truths ; and in like 
manner there is an influence from the pages of 
Heathenism that bewilders and overpowers the 
moral feeling of the youth who is brought into 
habitual contact with them, though he may not 
feel it at the time. But as in their case the seeds 
of truth unfold themselves in after life, and produce 
fruit "some thirty, some sixty and some an hundred 
fold ;" so in the other case, the serpent which had 
crept into the heart, concealed beneath the flowers of 
Parnassus, after a while raises its Hydra head, and 
poisons the bosom in which it had lain dormant. 

What then is to be done in the case ? it is 
asked ; and I have already answered, I am not 
prepared to say that these writings of antiquity 
should be shut out from our Schools or Colleges 
and Universities. This would be like rejecting 
from our edifices all the beautiful orders of archi- 
tecture because formerly employed in decorating 
Pagan Temples. Nor am I prepared to say that 



Persons and Events. 225 

the time has yet come, as some have declared, when 
we should reverse the order in which Languages 
are usually studied, leading our students through 
Hebrew, Greek and Latin, instead of directing 
them through Latin, Greek, and Hebrew. But 
this we avow, and thus far do we go most con- 
fidently. In arranging a system for Classical educa- 
tion, it is of infinite and special importance that 
every man who is entrusted with this Department 
of instruction should not only be a rij^e scholar, 
l)ut he should also be imbued mth a spirit of 
piety, and well acquainted with the great and 
cardinal truths of Christianity ; that he may thus 
be qualified to disinfect the atmosphere through 
which he leads his pupils, poisoned as it is with 
worse than Roman malaria. Under such guidance 
we will not so much fear to put a Virgil, or a 
Horace, or a Juvenal, or a Lucian, or a Pindar into 
the hands of our youth ; for these writers may thus 
be disenchanted of those dangerous fascinations 
which are most calculated to mislead ; they may thus 
be employed to benefit the mind and form the taste 
without corrupting the heart ; and their very defects 
be made of service to set forth in strong contrast 

the unalloyed excellence of that one Book which is 
15 



226 Recollections of 

first and alone in matter and in manner. In this 
way it is the design of this Institution to form 
Classical scholars, and with a view of giving such 
a scholarship a very prominent place in the system 
it has adopted, the Department of Learned Lan- 
guages is so arranged and filled as to combine the 
training in the Classics commonly given in our 
Colleges with that higher exegetical instruction in 
Classical Literature, which is given in many of the 
Universities of Europe. 

Had I time, I would dwell at some length on 
the importance which the L^niversity will attach 
to Mathematical and Physical Science. Not only 
do we live in a practical age, but we dwell in the 
midst of a practical Community. Hence have 
we felt it incumbent upon us to make wide and 
extensive provision for instruction in the useful 
arts. To be useful, is our great object, and while 
we are far from proscribing the polite arts as of no 
utility, they should not be allowed to throw into 
the shade those which contribute more directly to 
the wants and convenience of man. But while for 
reasons which are sufficiently obvious, we have 
been desirous to afford every facility for acquiring 
the knowledge which ministers immediately to the 



Persons and Events. 227 

practical purposes of life, there are reasons why we 
have been particularly anxious that if our youth 
are led into the field of Physical Science at all, 
we should give them instruction which will be 
thorough and full. A smatterer in any thing is 
despicable ; but a smatterer in Physics is both dan- 
gerous and despicable. It is in these very fields 
of knowledge, the field of the Astronomer, of the 
Chemist, the Mineralogist, the Botanist, the Ge- 
ologist, in which by constant converse with 
nature, men ought to be led " from nature up to 
nature's God," that we too often find science per- 
verted to shut out our Maker from His world and 
from the minds of men. Divine or revealed truth 
has nothing to fear, but much to hope ; nothing 
to lose, but much to gain from deep and thorough 
investigations in Physics ; and if men would look 
long enough and deep enough into the laws which 
govern the material world, they could never be 
inclined to array the works of the Creator against 
His word. 

There is* a much closer affinity between sciolists 
and sceptics than is generally imagined. 

But there is still another reason why we are so 
desirous to carry the study of natural science to an 



228 Recollections of 

elevated standard. It is taken from the character 
of our country. Nature is always true to her own 
sketches. She never draws outlines that deceive, 
but makes the filling up to correspond with them. 
Who then can look on the Broad and majestic 
rivers, and the high and lofty mountains that dis- 
tinguish the face of this Continent, without con- 
cluding that beneath the surface are treasures of 
corresponding richness and value. And yet how 
little has been done to explore and to improve 
them. It is but of late that the public mind has 
been turned toward the subject, and now when in- 
dividual munificence is beginning to act and to pro- 
vide the means for discoveries, how desirable that 
our Seats of Learning should provide men ably and 
extensively versed in the whole range of natural 
science for the labor of exploring and bringing to 
light the hidden treasures of our mountains and 
our valleys. There are mines yet lying undisturbed 
in their bosoms, more precious than the mines of 
gold and silver from which the cupidity of other 
nations have drawn so largely ; and we fondly 
anticipate the day when to this and other Literary 
Institutions of the land, our Statesmen will look 
for men who are to unlock her treasures of wealth 



Persons and Events. 229 

to the nation, provide increased employment for her 
enterprising spirit, and make earth, air, and sea all 
furnish fresh and enlarged tribute to the comfort, 
the safety, and the happiness of man. What a 
glorious day will that be, when the light of 
Heaven's truth and favor shall shine over all our 
Seminaries of Learning : and 

" As the web. that's spread beneath the sun 
Grows pure by being purely shone upon," 

• they shall thus be freed from every source of moral 
pollution, and in their turn become fountains of 
health and life ; when parents will look to them 
not only as schools for the instruction of our youth, 
but as Sanctuaries for their preservation from evil ; 
when our rulers will view them as nurseries of the 
nation's strength ; and when they shall be multi- 
plied and spread abroad from border to border of 
our land, as stars in a new fii'mament of knowledge. 

The Professors had no sooner opened their 
courses of instruction, than classes were formed 
exceeding our expectations in the number of stu- 
dents, and which soon entirely outgrew our accom- 
modations. For as yet we had no building of our 



230 Recollections of 

own. We had depended on apartments in one 
building after another as we could best find them, 
and these by no means adapted to our wants. Of 
course the subject of erecting an edifice for our- 
selves necessarily soon came before the Council. 
The measure was farther recommended by the 
consideration that the patronage of the State could 
be more readily secured, when it should be seen 
that we had a local habitation as well as a name ; 
and indeed we all felt that until this object was 
accomplished, the Institution could not possess 
that aspect of stability which was necessary to 
secure lasting patronage from either private or 
public munificence. The sentiment also was general 
that in order to secure the liberality of our citizens, 
we must place before them a building that would 
correspond with the prevailing taste in architec- 
ture, and that it would be more difficult to raise 
means for the erection of an edifice on a small and 
inferior scale, than for one more costly but better 
adapted, both to our own convenience and the 
ambition of the public. A plan was accordingly 
adopted for the building which now stands as a 
memorial of the liberality then shown by the 
friends of the Institution. 



J 



Persons and Events. ' 231 

The corner stone was laid in tlie summer of 
1833 with appropriate ceremonies, and in the 
autumn of 1835, we entered the new edifice under 
auspices in every respect encouraging. 

Several new Professorships had been filled 
besides those introduced at the opening of the 
Institution, and the increasing number of students 
found ample provision made for their instruction. 

The various and diversified Departments of the 
University, so far from colliding or interfering 
with each other as some had feared, were seen not 
only to harmonize together, but also to minister to 
the strength and efficiency of each other and of the 
whole Institution. The edifice had the approba- 
tion of those who had been oui' patrons from the 
first, and enlisted on our behalf many new friends ; 
and believing that the time had come to justify an 
application to the Legislature for a grant from the 
State, it was laid before them. It met with a 
favorable reception. The enlarged scheme of 
instruction embraced in the plan of the University, 
furnished a strong argument with the Legislature 
to grant us an endowment from the State Treasury 
as a fitting use of the public funds, and they ac- 
cordingly granted us a yearly appropriation of six 



m 



232 Recollections of 

thousand dollars, besides a share in the Literature 
Fund, amounting to at least one thousand dollars 
more, to be continued for five years, and until 
otherwise ordered. 

The endowment from the State came at a very 
seasonable period. The Act was passed and the 
first payment made, just before one of those pe- 
riods of wide-spread pecuniary disaster, which have 
sometimes overtaken our City. The years of 1837 
and 1838 will long be remembered in New York. 
Men who had spent lives of honorable industry to 
accumulate fortunes, saw the whole swept away 
from them in the course of a few months; and 
friends of the University bore their share in the 
general calamity. But encouraged and strength- 
ened by the appropriation from the State, al- 
though the times were trying, they were met by 
a display of new liberality. A careful investiga- 
tion was made to ascertain the amount necessary 
to meet existing demands which called for pay- 
ment, and also to enable the Institution to main- 
tain the various courses of instruction already in- 
troduced, and the sum required was at once raised, 
chiefly by the early and tried friends of the Uni- 
versity; and the Institution, as was supposed, 



Persons and Events. 233 

placed beyond tlie reucli of future pecuniary em- 
barrassment. 

In tlie mean time I began to feel that tlie cares 
and labors througli wLicli I had passed during the 
last eight or nine years, had made their mark upon 
me. The internal affairs of the University in its 
different departments required constant and careful 
supervision. Though faithfully aided by members 
of the Council, yet much of the labor in raising 
funds to meet the exigencies through Avhich the 
Institution had passed came upon me, howevei- 
reluctant I felt to bear it. I had also in this event- 
ful period in the history of the City, another 
burden to carry. In the memorable fii'e of 1835, 
oui* chiu'ch in Exchano-e Place Avas reduced to 
ashes. The folly of rebuilding on the same site 
was so obvious that no one wished it to be done ; 
but the question then arose, where should we go ? 
Part of the congregation still lived at or near the 
Battery, and a part had already moved up town. 
As was natural, each wished the church when 
rebuilt, to be placed in theii" own neighborhood. 
No pastor attached to his people can see questions 
of this kind arising in his chui'ch without anxiety 
as to the result ; and during the period when the 



234 Recollections of 

accumulated cares and labors growing out of my 
relations to the churcli and the University were 
pressing upon me, my friends, especially my medi- 
cal friends, perceived that my health was suffering 
before I was conscious of it myself. I shall never 
forget the serious look of several physicians who 
assembled in my room one morning without my 
knowledge of their purpose, and when I asked to 
what I was indebted for the pleasure of seeing so 
many of them together, they told me they had 
come to save me from the grave, and then assured 
me that I must detach myself from some, if not all 
of my official duties, at least for a time, or sink 
under the burden I was carrying. I felt that I 
was bound to listen to advice so seriously and so 
kindly given ; and it was not long before I became 
conscious that it had not been given too soon. 
Symptoms began to show themselves which con- 
vinced me that duty to myself and my family 
required me to lessen the amount of my labors, 
and of course to retire from the church or the 
University. On no account could I entertain 
the purpose of severing my connection with the 
chui'ch as it was then situated ; and although the 
University had not yet reached that stage of devel- 



Persons and Events. 235 

opment to wLicli I had hoped to see it carried 
before my retirement from the Chancellorship, 
enough had been done to show what could be 
done ; and I felt constrained to request the Council 
to appoint my successor. Several of its members 
earnestly opposed the idea of my resignation, and 
urged that I should take a period of relaxation and 
go abroad. My medical advisers thought differ- 
ently, and advised that I should free myself from 
care as well as from labor. After consultation, we 
fixed upon Theodore Frelinghuysen, Esq., as the 
man whom we would elect to take my place; 
when I transmitted my resignation to the Council, 
and it was accepted. My communication to them 
and their action upon it was as follows: 

Univhksity of the City of New York, 
February l\th, 1839. 

To THE HONOBABLE THE CoUNCIL OF THE UnIVEESITY OP 

THE City op New Yoek: 
Gentlemen : — It is probably recollected by 
the Council that I made a communication to 
them in June last, stating that several medical 
advisers had urged me, not only to take a respite 
from my public labors, but to sever myself for a 



236 Recollections of 

time from the scene and associations of my pres- 
ent employment by going abroad. This advice 
I then felt it my duty to follow, and accordingly 
proposed to surrender my office as Chancellor into 
the hands of the Council. 

Obstacles which are well known imposed upon 
me the necessity of deferring the execution of my 
purpose. These are now successfully surmounted, 
but the same reasons for taking a period of re- 
laxation yet exist, and in still greater strength. 
I am advised also, that in order to derive per- 
manent advantage from the contemplated suspen- 
sion of my labors, such arrangements should be 
completed as will secure me against that accu- 
mulation of official responsibilities which I have 
borne for several years past. I accordingly feel 
constrained to renew the proposition formerly 
made, and to ask the action of the Council upon 
it by the appointment of a successor in the 
Chancellorship, as soon as they shall judge con- 
venient and suitable arrangements can be made 
for carrying it into effect. 

The Council, I trust, will not consider me as 
relinquishing any of my feelings of interest in the 
Institution. My intimate connection with it from 



Persons and Events. 237 

its origin will not allow it to fade away from 
my affection and my sympathies. ^ But it has been 
well understood by many of my friends, that my 
object, from the time of my appointment, has 
been rather to co-operate with the Council in 
founding and organizing a University on a scale 
commensurate with the wants of the country, than 
to continue at its head after it should have been 
brought into complete operation. This object 
I consider as mainly accomplished. The Faculties 
of Philosophy and Letters, of Science and Arts, 
and of Law, are now fully organized, and the 
Chairs filled with able professors successfully 
prosecuting their respective labors. And although 
unexpected delay has taken place in completing 
the Medical Faculty, yet the extended system of 
instruction according to which the Professorships 
have been arranged, has been maturely weighed, 
and is now finally adopted ; and I hope that ere 
long this department of the University will be 
brought into successful action, and in a manner 
that will be of essential service to the cause of 
medical science. 

Besides other means which have been provided 
for carrying out the objects of the Institution, the 



238 Recollections of 

building for its accommodation is now completed, 
and is alike ornamental to our city and admirably 
adapted to its purposes. An endowment has also 
been obtained from the State, which enables the 
Council to carry forward the business of the 
University, and yet not to allow its ordinary 
expenses to exceed its ordinary income ; and I feel 
assured that in this state of things, the friends of 
learning will carry out successfully the system of 
measures now adopted for paying off the floating 
debt. I have always been persuaded that when 
the late disastrous times should have passed away, 
a proper application to the public authorities and 
to liberal individuals, would obtain the pecuniary 
aid which is requisite to secure the stability of the 
Institution. 

It is now more than eight yeai-s since I had the 
honor to receive the appointment to my present 
office ; and in surrendering it into the hands of the 
Council, after a connection with them during such 
a length of time, I feel it but just, both to them 
and to myself, to express my cordial gratitude for 
their undeviating kindness and support in the 
discharge of my official duties. Amidst all the 
labors required of me in the prosecution of our 



Persons and Events. 239 

arduous enterprise, I have been sustained with a 
magnanimity and fidelity which can never be for- 
gotten. 

With ardent prayers for the blessing of God 
upon the Council, and upon the Institution itself 
in all its departments, I have the honor to be, 
with sentiments of sincere and affectionate con- 
sideration, 

Yours very truly, 

J. M. Mathews, Chancellor. 

I may be pardoned for adding the minute em- 
bodying the reply of the Council. I value their 
testimony the more highly as it came from those 
who had been my counsellors and fellow-laborers 
from the time when the establishment of the 
University was first contemplated. My commu- 
nication was referred to a committee, who reported. 

"That they have embodied the views enter- 
tained by themselves, and which they deem proper 
to be expressed by the Council upon this subject, 
in the form of resolutions which they recommend 
for the adoption of the Council. 

" Mesohed, That this Council have learned with 



240 Recollections of 

deep regret, that the retirement of the* Chancellor 
from the station he now occupies is rendered 
necessary by the state of his health, and they 
sincerely hope that the proposed relaxation of his 
labors will result in his speedy and complete 
recovery, and in prolonging his valuable life. 

'■^ Resolved^ That the resignation of the Chan- 
cellor be, and the same is hereby accepted, and 
that he be requested to continue in office until a 
successor shall be appointed and shall enter upon 
the discharge of the duties assigned him, at which 
time the said resignation shall take effect. 

" And whereas, on this occasion, it is peculiarly 
proper and demanded by justice to the Chancellor, 
that this Council should express their opinion of 
his character and services as the Head of the 
University ; therefore 

''^ Resolved^ That in him they recognize its 
projector and principal founder, and the author of 
the enlarged and liberal system of education upon 
which it is based; that ever since his connection 
with it as its first officer, they have been the 
witnesses of his zeal, devotion and sacrifices to 
promote its best interests, in rearing the University 
edifice, and in other means of advancing the cause 



Persons and Events. 241 

of science and learning ; that they have always had 
entire confidence in his integrity, fidelity, and 
singleness of purpose; and that, in the judgment 
of the Council, for these and other services ren- 
dered to the Institution, he is well entitled to the 
gratitude of its friends, the public, and posterity. 

" And, as a testimony of the respect entertained 
for him by the Council as a body, and as indi- 
viduals, be it further 

^^ Mesolved^ That the Chancellor be requested 
to sit for his portrait to some artist to be desig- 
nated by himself; that the same be placed in the 
Library of the University ; and that the expense 
of taking the said portrait be contributed by 
members of the Council. 

"This report having been read, was unani- 
mously adopted." 

The Council having so requested, I remained in 
office until the following summer, when my successor 
was inaugurated. 

Such is a brief view of the University of the 
City of New York, as to its origin, its early his- 
tory, and the plans designed for it by the men who 

brought it into existence. Our design was to 
16 






242 Recollections of 

create a University — a University, not merely in 
name, but in reality and truth, in which the widest 
range of liberal education should be provided and 
sustained ; a University framed on a scale adapted 
to the wants, not simply of our city, the metro- 
polis of the western world though it be; nor 
simply to the wants of our State, Empire State 
though it be ; but to the wants of the whole 
nation, and drawing to its halls, students from all 
parts of our country. Nor was it to be a Univer- 
sity cast after the model of Institutions abroad, 
which, however venerable for age, are sometimes 
defaced with the rust of indolence and inaction, 
and burdened by usages that are antiquated and 
worse than useless; in which, of course, there is 
much to unlearn and undo before the way is 
cleared for what is better and wiser. But it was 
to be a University adapted to the age of activity 
in which we live, to the untrammelled thought and 
loffcy purposes of the nation to which we belong, 
and which, from its outset, should have the advan- 
tages of a clear track before it as it pursued its way. 
To the liberal minded men who formed the 
convention to whom we submitted the scheme of 
the Institution, it furnished no objection that it 



Persons and Events. 243 

bore an aspect somewhat new. The convention 
included men distinguished for their sage wisdom 
and their long experience in the world of letters. 
They believed as we believed, that the time has 
gone by when self-styled conservatives can affect to 
smile at progress. Progress is the word of our 
age, as it has been of every age which promised 
good for the future. The first spread of Chris- 
tianity was an age of progress. The reformation 
of religion and learning fi^om the delusions of tlie 
dark ages was an age of progress. Nothing in our 
world is stationary. Every thing created is con- 
stantly going either backward or forward, is in a 
state either of improvement or decay. It is so in 
the products of the earth, and in every j^ower or 
faculty that belongs to man himself. No wise 
man, then, will cling to every thing that is old, 
simply because it is old. An Egyptian mummy is 
very well in its place, as a mummy ; but we would 
be far from keeping it in our drawing room, when 
we could obtain in its stead a statue or a bust from 
the hands of a Canova or a Greenough. We 
would rather leave the old thing in its crypt, to be 
examined by the curious lover of relics who lias 
nothing else to do. 



244 Recollections of 

Such mouldering antiquities, however, are not 
the worst things in our world. So far as we 
know, they have inflicted no evil on their gener- 
ations. But there are enormous abuses which are 
the growth of time — abuses in States, in Churches, 
and in Seminaries of learning ; abuses which have 
become oppressive and injurious wrongs upon the 
human race ; and it is our privilege to live at a 
period when many of these grievous enormities, 
whether civil, religious, or literary, are shaking 
and tottering toward their fall. Not a few of 
them, indeed, have fallen already. The nations 
of the Old World feel the spirit of reform and 
change becoming stronger and stronger within 
them ; and much that we have seen of thrones 
overturned, and aristocracies sinking from their 
once high estate, is but the l:)eginning of the end. 
Cloisters and the mosques of superstition are no 
longer able to keep their doors barred against 
the progressive and inquisitive spirit of our day ; 
and when we have found our way within, and 
see the hollow deceit which had held the world 
so long in spiritual bondage, we come forth 
animated with new zeal for the spread of an 
intelligent and life-renewing faith. The shrines 



Persons and Events. 245 

of learning, too, are made suVjject to this same 
spirit of scrutiny, which goes on weighing every 
thing before it in the balances of truth and 
right. Eved Oxford and Cambridge, though sur- 
rounded with thousands of hallowed memories, 
having with their untold wealth, too long con- 
fined their highest prizes to faultless Prosody or 
speculative Mathematics, now find the hand of 
the Reformer reaching them, and requiring them 
to give an account of their stewardship. Indeed, 
all the oldest seats of learning are gradually ap- 
proximatimg a state of transition, or have already 
entered it. Science throughout the civilized 
world is required to lay aside her stateliness, and 
to come forward, and even stoop down to see 
what she can devise and do for the practical 
benefit of man. The loud and earnest cry of Bacon 
when he asked, " Is knowledge ever barren ?" 
begins to be heard far and near, among the high 
and the low ; and in no land on which the sun 
shines is the cry so loud, so earnest, and so pro- 
longed as in our own. The nation has risen up, and 
conscious of her giant strength, though yet in her 
youth, she has announced to the nations her lofty 
purpose to create a new era in history ; a new era 



246 Recollections of 

in the knowledge and assertion of civil and social 
rights ; a new era in the wider extension of an 
education that will liberate, elevate, and stimulate 
the whole mass of mind in a nation, qualifying 
them both for self-government and self-protection ; 
a new era in the cultivation of science by scientific 
men, giving them both the will and the means to 
discover the yet secret powers of every element in 
nature, and to draw them forth in new applications 
to the service of man. 

See what she has already done with that subtle 
and most powerful element, the electric fluid. 
One of her sons first chained it to a rod to protect 
our lives and dwellings from its deadly stroke; 
and another has tamed down the once-dreaded 
thing, that seemed powerful only for evil, and has 
made it the obedient messenger to carry our 
thoughts around the world with the speed of 
thought itself. If I mistake not, electricity has 
only begun to do its destined work. Our all-wise 
Creator makes nothing in vain. He never wastes 
his own workmanship. He sees the end from the 
beginning. He adapts means to their ends. Nor 
can I suppose that He would have given such 
surpassing power to that wonderful agent, if He 



Persons and Events. 247 

had not designed it to accomplish more wonderful 
results than we have yet seen. May not the day be 
coming, perhaps be at hand, when, with an increase 
of safety, and with an economy of time and cost as 
yet unknown, it will impel our ships across the 
ocean and our cars on the railroad; when it will 
drive the press that prints our books ; when it will 
effect new wonders in agriculture, as in every thing 
else, and will produce rich crops from soils now 
abandoned to barrenness and desolation ? And as 
it was under American mind that lightning 
received its first schooling, is it not reasonable to 
suppose that it will finish its education under 
masters of the same nation ? 

What is true of the electric fluid, may be also 
true concerning other powers of nature ; for, not- 
withstanding all that has been done by science in 
her deepest investigations, we are yet only on the 
surface. Fire may yet be extracted from mountains 
of ice, and the frozen mass thus made to liquefy 
itself. The very Upas-tree may yet be made to 
furnish a healing antidote to its own deadly poison. 
The noxious vapors now ascending from the putrid 
mass, may yet be turned into a channel that will 
minister to the health which they are now so 



248 Recollections of 

powerful to destroy. But if in such achievements 
for public good, the elastic, ever active, indomitable 
genius of our country is either to take or keep the 
lead, she must have Institutions of learning and 
science that will dare to step beyond the usages of 
past centuries ; that will quicken the minds of her 
sons to invent, to explore, to test every thing that 
the Creator of earth, air, and sea has placed within 
their reach; Institutions embracing a sphere of 
instruction that leaves no one branch of Science or 
of Letters to stand alone, isolated from others that 
would tend to their mutual improvement if 
united ; but in which all may be grouped as in a 
bright constellation, where every new star that is 
added renders the whole sky the more brilliant 
and heavenly. 

And if the nation needs such a seat of learning 
to develop her intellect and to prepare her to run 
the race set before her, where can she plant it with 
so much advantage to all she would expect from 
it, as in the city of New York? For its proper 
growth and expansion, as I have described it, its 
teachers and its taught must have ready access to 
vast libraries, where they can converse with both 
the dead and the living ; and to rich collections 



Persons and Events. 249 

from nature and art, where they can survey both 
the various productions of the Almighty Creator 
and the works of human skill and contrivance. 
It must also be embosomed in a community 
where man can have free intercourse with man, 
where man comes into collision with man, where 
man can co-operate with man, where man is the 
study of man. It must have the bodily diseases 
and social wrongs of all climes and nations 
brought vnthin its observation, that it may give 
opportunity to study their nature and origin, and 
how they are to be remedied. It must have a 
living cosmorama constantly around and before 
it, exhibitions of men in the widest universality, 
universality of pursuits, universality of tastes, 
universality of condition and character. So much 
the better if, within the walk of an hour, we 
could meet with men from a score of different 
nations, speaking as many different languages, 
governed by as many different instincts and 
objects. All these advantages should enter into 
the field of a University doing the work of the 
day and of the land in which we live. 

I need not say how, in these respects, New 
York outstrips all other cities of the western 



250 Recollections of 

world, and is every year leaving them more and 
more in the distance. Her wealth increases faster 
than sobriety is inclined to count it; and even 
when mines of gold are discovered on the shores of 
the Pacific, the treasure must first be poured into 
the lap of New York before it circulates through 
the nation. As a consequence of her facilities for 
the accumulation of property, she is fast becoming 
the increased abode of keen-sighted, far-seeing 
men, who impart more or less of the tone of their 
own spirit to every class of our inhabitants. 
With her numerous libraries, with her various 
museums, with her swarming population, she sees 
choice minds of the land among her divines, her 
lawyers, her physicians, her men of Science and 
Letters — all of them tending, in their various 
spheres, to carry the intelligence of the city upward 
and onward. Through the great arteries that 
branch out in all directions from her as the heart 
of the nation, she has a free communication with 
every part of our vast country, drawing to herself 
whatever it can yield, and which tends to build up 
her own greatness; and with the wide Atlantic, 
bridged as it is at her very doors by our noble 
steamers, she finds herself in daily intercourse with 



Persons and Events. 251 

tlie best intellects of the Old World ; and as they 
pour their richest wisdom into this new hemi- 
sphere, she has the first of it, before it passes 
beyond her, or into the hands of others. 

I cannot well conceive of a place with higher 
advantages than these for such an Institution as 
the University of the City of New York was 
designed to be by its founders; nor should I dismiss 
the subject on which they bestowed so much time 
and thought, without a tribute of respect to the 
memory of some of them now in their graves. 

Mr. Gallatin had been long in public life and 
was widely known both at home and abroad. He 
was greatly distinguished for fertility of mind. 
While acting with his friends Adams and Clay as 
commissioner at Ghent to form a treaty of peace 
between England and America, difficulties fre- 
quently arose in the course of the negotiations 
which seemed insurmountable. It is said that Mr. 
Gallatin, after a brief interval, could always 
suggest some new measure or present some new 
aspect of the chief question which furnished a new 
starting point, while Mr. Adams, from his extensive 
information, would often say more in favor of Mr. 
Gallatin's plan than Mr. Gallatin could say 



252 Recollections of 

Mmself ; and Mr. Clay would follow iij) tlie whole 
with some melting appeal tliat would make all 
parties feel half ashamed that there should be so 
much difficulty in devising terms of pacification 
between two nations so intimately allied as 
England and America. The same diversified 
talent which Mr. Gallatin had discovered on other 
occasions we found of much service to us in our 
deliberations res]3ecting the scheme of the Uni- 
versity. 

General Lewis had served in the army of the 
Revolution. He had subsequently risen to the 
Bench as Chief Justice of our State, and afterwards 
filled its Executive chair as Governor. He 
presided at our earliest meetings when contempla- 
ting the establishment of the Institution, and 
brought his well-matured judgment to our aid. 

General Tallmadge had passed many of his 
previous years, in the councils both of the State 
and the nation, and after retiring from his political 
relations and responsibilities, he spent the closing 
years of his life in promoting the cause of learning, 
of agriculture, and other important interests in the 
State to which he always avowed himself as fondly 
attached. 



Persons and Events. 253 

Among our mercliant princes we had such men 
as John Johnston, Samuel Ward, Henry I. 
Wyckoff, George Griswold and John Delafield, 
long and widely known for their large munificence* 
and enlightened views. 

Of my own Profession, we had among others 
one whose name I can never mention without a 
feeling both of affection and esteem. Dr. Mc- 
Murray and myself had been friends from our 
childhood. He came to the city while yet in 
the early part of his ministry, and I always 
considered it a high privilege to have him near me 
both as a counsellor and a friend. He was 
eminently distinguished for the soundness of his 
judgment, and I seldom ventured to do or to 
undertake any thing if it did not meet with his 
approbation. 

With him we had Dr. Milnor, a man of large 
experience in public affairs and of great devotion 
to public good, whether in church or state. He 
had been highly respected as a member of the bar 
in Philadelphia, had served in the Congress of the 
United States, and when he took his place among 
us in the City of New York as a minister of the 
Gospel, he was received with a measure of confi- 



254 Recollections of 

dence and respect whicli but seldom meets 
any man when lie first appears among us. 

But there is still another name to be mentioned 
from among the clergy. If I am entitled to the 
credit which the Council of the University have 
seen fit to assign me for any agency in devising the 
large scheme of instruction it was designed to 
embrace, I am indebted to Bishop (then Dr.) 
Wainwright for most valuable aid. He was an 
accomplished scholar. Liberal education had been 
one of his favorite studies, and he comprehended 
with great clearness the true bearing of the several 
branches of knowledge that go to train a well 
educated student, and to form a complete and well 
adjusted Institution of Learning. Every friend of 
the University owes a tribute of gratitude to the 
memory of Bishop Wainwright. It is with no 
ordinary emotion that I look back to the many 
days in which we took counsel together in draw- 
ing out the plan and moulding the features of the 
Institution. 

Perhaps in this enumeration I ought not to omit 
the name of Edward Livingston. Though he 
never belonged to the Council, he was a member 
of the Convention when the plan of the Uni- 



Persons and Events. 255 

versity was submitted for consideration. His 
fame as a jurist and statesman is well known, and 
liis " Codes " prove Low well he was acquainted 
with both the science and practice of his profession. 
He felt a special interest in the character which the 
University would give to its Faculty of Law, and 
his views were not forgotten or undervalued when 
the Faculty was formed. Though he was at the 
time a citizen of New Orleans, he still retained an 
active sympathy with the city of which he had 
once been the popular Chief Magistrate ; having 
borne the responsibilities of the office during 
one of those seasons of pestilence which tried both 
his fidelity to his duty and his generosity to the 
suffering. He was Mayor of New York in 1803, 
when the yellow fever broke out in a very malig- 
nant type, attacking all classes. As a consequence 
of his constant labors among the sick, he caught 
the disease himself, and for some days his life was 
supposed to be in great jeopardy. When his 
physicians prescribed wine for him, not a drop was 
to be found in his house. Whatever may have 
been his store previously, he had given it all to the 
poor who had not the means of buying it. As 
soon as the fact was known, our citizens vied with 



256 Recollections of 

eacli other in sending him ample supplies of their 
very best ; and indeed throughout his illness, the 
young people of the city considered it an honor to 
be allowed to watch by his bedside. To his latest 
days he was remembered with great kindness by 
many of our oldest and most respectable inhabit- 
ants, and perhaps all the more so because like Pitt, 
Fox, Webster, Clay, and other distinguished 
statesmen, he greatly overlooked his own private 
interests while devoting his time and his strength 
to the welfare of the public. 

Let me add in conclusion: I have dwelt the 
more minutely on the cause which led to my 
retirement from the Chancellorship in order to 
enforce a caution which I would give to my 
brethren in the ministry, and indeed to all men 
who are engaged in public stations. It relates to 
the hazard of health and life incurred by 
undertaking to fulfil the duties of two laborious 
and responsible offices at the same time. The 
Chinese have a proverb, " one man, one work ;" 
and although they carry the application of it to 
a ridiculous length, it contains a principle of 
sound wisdom. I had not sufficiently considered 



Persons and Events. 257 

it. And here is a circumstance that greatly 
enhances the danger. In the excitement which at- 
tends constant and absorbing employment, the man 
is utterly unconscious of the wear and tear that 
are wasting his physical powers, as in the heat of 
battle men are said not to feel even mortal wounds 
till they are sinking into the sleep of death ; and 
I have no doubt that, had it not been for the 
kind and seasonable advice of friends, I should 
before this day have been in my grave. 

At my advanced age, and standing as I do not 
far from the close both of my life and labors, let 
me warn my clerical brethren on this subject. The 
pastor of a church, especially in a city, has enough 
on his hands ; and though his people in their kind- 
ness, if he undertakes other official duties, may 
furnish him with an assistant or a colleague, there 
are labors and cares, from which he cannot be 
exonerated. If he feels himself called in the 
Providence of God, -to fill some other office involving 
new duties, let him release himself from the 
responsibilities of a pastor. It may cost him 
many struggles to do it. He may be obliged to 
sever some of the tenderest ties that bind the heart 

of man to man ; but let him do it, or his life may 
17 



258 Recollections of 

be the forfeit before he becomes aware of his 
danger. Should he persist in bearing the responsi- 
bilities of the two positions, self-preservation may 
at length constrain him to relinquish both. 



Persons and Events. 259 



CHAPTER XIII. 

Changes in New York. — Population. — Public Places. — Pub- 
lic Buildings. — Public Men. — Churches. — Removal of 
Churches from the First Six Wards. — Inadequate Supply 
of Churches for the whole City. — Influence of Religion 
IN Cities upon the Country. — Special Duties and Responsi- 
bilities of Christians in such a City as New York. 

The changes whicli have taken place in New 
York during the last fifty or sixty years have been 
so rapid and wide-spread as almost to exceed the 
belief of those who have not been eye-witnesses of 
the events as they occurred. The population in 
1810, was 96,373. In 1860, it was 805,651 ; and at 
this date (1864) it is estimated at above 1,100,000. 
Indeed, applying the rule by which the popu- 
lation of London is generally estimated ; in- 
cluding places like Brooklyn and others in the 
vicinity of New York, the population of the city 
cannot be far short of 1,500,000. This extraordi- 
nary growth will be the more apparent by a 
comparison of the population with that of other 
cities, as may be seen in the following table : 



260 Recollections of 

1810. 1860. 

Boston 32,250 177,812 

New York 96,373 805,651 

Philadelphia 96,664 562,529 

Baltimore 46,556 212,418 

Charleston 24,711 40,578 

The area of what was properly the compact 
part of the city in 1810, was contained chiefly in 
the first six wards ; it may now be said to spread 
over about one-half of the island. Much of the 
ground which was then occupied by country-seats 
or lying as a waste, is converted into the streets 
and squares that now form the most brilliant and 
populous portions of our city. The Central Park 
was then a barren wild, overgrown with scraggy 
bushes and deformed with misshapen rocks and 
stones. Madison Square once formed the site and 
ground, alloted to the House of Kefuge for 
Juvenile Delinquents. Washington Square was 
Potter's Field, for the burial of paupers and un- 
claimed strangers ; while the public places in the 
lower part of the city formerly most celebrated 
for their beauty and the crowds resorting to them, 
have now lost all their attractiveness. The 
grounds lying in front of the City-Hall went 
especially by the name of " The Park," were kept 
in fine order, and were covered with a veniure 



Persons and Events. 261 

and foliage tliat furnished a pleasant relief to the 
eye during the summer, in the midst of the sur- 
rounding streets and buildings. But the Battery 
was the pride of the city as a Promenade. It 
covered, as it still does, the southern extremity of 
the island, looking directly out .on our beautiful 
Bay, catching through the Narrows a glimpse of 
the sea, the view skirted on either side by the 
shores of Long Island on the left and New Jersey 
on the right, and terminated in the distance by the 
bold rising ground of Staten Island. As if to 
correspond with these natural advantages, the place 
itself was laid out with great taste and kept with 
great care, beautiful walks intersecting it in all 
directions, the green sward interspersed with 
flowers and covered with trees, some of them 
highly ornamental and others venerable with age. 
New York may have other splendid squares and 
parks, but she can have but the one Battery. 
The site of the island forbids it. But the Battery is 
now gone never to be restored. No one can look 
upon the deformed neglected grounds, covered in 
many places with squalid poverty or strange look- 
ing emigrants, without a regret for the splendor 
and beauty which are now no more. 



262 Recollections of 

The neighboring streets have been subjected 
to the same adverse changes. State street, fronting 
the Battery, and the lower part of Broadway and 
of Greenwich street, were occupied by families 
standing among our first inhabitants for intelli- 
gence and refinement ; and now their elegant 
residences are demolished, and are succeeded by 
stores or tenement houses. When I pass through 
that once beautiful part of the city, I can scarce 
retrace the landmarks where fiiends and parish- 
ioners formerly lived, and I feel like a stranger 
where I once met a friend or an intimate acquaint- 
ance within almost every door. 

The public buildings once seen in that region, — 
where are they now ? The Government House 
stood on the street now called Bowling Green, 
looking up Broadway. The building itself was 
in good taste and had an imposing appearance. 
It was erected by the State, and was for some 
years the Executive Mansion of George Clinton 
and John Jay when filling the office of Governor. 
It aftei*wards became the Custom-House, and 
about the year 1815, the ground was sold to 
gentlemen who covered it with some of the most 
desirable residences in the city. The houses are 



Persons and Events. 263 

still there, but are now occupied as offices and 
counting rooms. 

But witli no public edifice were sucli hallowed 
memories of public affairs connected as with the 
old Federal (or City) Hall. It stood at the corner 
of Wall and Nassau, looking down Broad street. 
It had been used for the sittings of Congress before 
their removal to Philadelphia, and had once echoed 
with the eloquence of such men as Madison, Ames, 
and others, when they were giving shape and 
solidity to the grand features of our civil freedom. 

But it had also been the scene of a transaction 
which rendered the place still more memorable. 
Its front was ornamented by a rich and spacious 
balcony, and there General Washington had stood 
when he first took his oath of office as President 
of the United States. I often surveyed it and 
walked through it from end to end when I first 
came to the city sixty years ago ; and never retired 
from the place without fond recollections of the 
scene that had there been enacted. I could picture 
to myself the illustrious man, with his Igfty stature 
and grave demeanor, then to be inaugurated as the 
Head of the Nation, stepping forth to meet the 
view of the people as they crowded to the 



264 Recollections of 

adjacent streets, meeting their demonstrations of 
homage with a tearful eye, laying his hand upon 
his heart, and bowing to them again and again, 
then turning to the Chancellor of the State, who 
stood waiting to administer to him the Oath of 
Office, and when he heard the solemn adjuration 
addressed to him, replying to it with deep 
solemnity, "I swear, so help me God;" I would 
recall the loud shouts of admiration which arose 
from the crowd as a response when the Chan- 
cellor stepped forward and proclaimed, "Long 
live George Washington, the President of the 
United States ;" and while the air was resounding 
with the voice of the people, cannon were fired on 
the Battery, and the bells were ringing all through 
the city. The history of our nation, prolonged as 
it may be, can scarcely include a scene so solemn 
and imposing as that; and the place where it 
transpired should have been allowed to stand as 
a memorial to all future generations. 

As a people, we have too little veneration for 
antiquity. Places, as well as times, have their 
sacredness. They have a moral influence which 
gives tone and strength to patriotic feeling when 
they are connected with great national events ; and 



Persons and Events. - 265 

as a salutary restraint on our restless desire for 
change, tliey should be carefully and reverently 
preserved. We can have no such inauguration 
again, as that which made George Washington first 
President of the United States of America ; and yet 
the venerable old Hall where it took place has 
been demolished, and not a trace of it left. 

With these memorials of events bordering on 
Revolutionary times, have disappeared a class of 
men, in whom the spirit of Revolutionary heroism 
seemed to survive long after the Revolution itself 
was consummated. Sixty years ago General Hamil- 
ton had just gone to his grave, but we had still 
with us General Matthew Clarkson, Colonel Richard 
Varick, Judge Egbert Benson, and a few others, 
their cotemporaries, all distinguished for the staid, 
dignified, and determined mien which reminded you 
of the scenes through which they had passed, and 
the work they had contributed to accomplish. 
Indeed, the men who had lived in that eventful 
day, in one sense formed a class by themselves. 
The spirit of their great chief seemed to have 
descended on those who survived him, creating a 
family likeness among them all, as if to mark their 
alliance, not only with each other, but with him 



266 Recollections of 

wliom they loved to contemplate as their common 
father and the Father of his Country. I do not 
now see among us men of exactly their type, 
though, no doubt, they would appear if a public 
exigency like that of the Revolution was again to 
call for them. 

Let us now look at some of our cburches. As 
the Dutch were the earliest settlers in the city, 
they of course tad the first places of Christian wor- 
ship on the island. Not to go farther back, fifty 
years ago the South Dutch Churck stood in what 
was formerly called Garden street, now Exchange 
Place. The ground had been long occupied by a 
building said to be much after the model of 
churches in Holland. It was the last church in 
which the Dutch language was used in public wor- 
ship, and 1 am told that out of deference to the 
ao-ed members, " the mother tonsrue" was not laid 
aside until there were not ten hearers left to listen 
to it. The old building stood unoccupied for 
several years, and at length gave place to one of 
more modern aspect and of greater convenience. 
This was burnt down in the great conflagration of 
1835. The neis^hborhood becominsf filled with 
stores and offices to the exclusion of residences, it 



Persons and Events. 267 

seemed idle to build on the same site; and tlie 
congregation, reluctantly bowing to circumstances, 
abandoned tlie ground and formed themselves into 
two churches; the one building first in Murray 
street, and then in Fifth Avenue, and the other 
building on Washington Square. The Middle 
Church, as it was called, in Nassau street, is now 
the Post-Office, the walls still standing, but appro- 
priated to purposes which have drawn many a sigh 
from those who have frequented the place as a 
holy sanctuary. Other Dutch Churches also have 
disappeared as places of worship from the lower 
part of the city. The German Eeformed, formerly 
in Nassau street, is gone ; and the Church once in 
Franklin street, is now in West Twenty-third. 

Of the Episcopal Denomination, Trinity Church 
stands where it always stood, in Broadway, at the 
head of Wall street ; Trinity of former days having 
given place to a new edifice of greater size and 
more grandeur, but in the opinion of some who 
love old times and old scenes, not equalling its 
predecessor in chasteness and symmetry of Archi- 
tecture. Grace Church has left the corner of 
Broadway and Rector street, and has gone to the 
corner of Broadway and Tenth street. Christ 



268 Recollections of 

Churcli has left Ann street, and after a temj)orary 
stay in Anthony, now Worth street, is on the cor- 
ner of Fifth Avenue and Thirty-fifth street. The 
French Church has left Pine street, and after remain- 
ing some years in Franklin street, is now in West 
Twenty-second street. The former sites of the 
whole three being surrendered to secular uses. 

Of the Presbyterian Denomination, the Wall 
Street Church, where it is said the standard of 
Presbyterianism was fii'st erected in our city, has 
removed to Fifth Avenue. The two Presbyteriaa 
Churches in Cedar street, have removed, one of 
them, first to Grand street, and then to West 
Fourteenth; the other, first to Duane street, and 
then to Fifth Avenue. The Murray Street Church 
went to Clinton Place. The Brick Church has 
removed from Beekman street, to Murray Hill. 
The Reformed Presbyterian Church left Chambers 
street, and after being for a time in Prince, is now 
in Twelfth street. The Associate Presbyterian 
Church went from Nassau, and is now in Grand 
street. The former sites of all these Presbyterian 
Churches are now occupied as places of business. 

The Baptist Church formerly in Gold street, is 
now in Grand street. The Methodist Church in 



Persons and Events. 269 

Duane street, lias left its former location. The 
same may be said of the Lutheran Church formerly 
in Frankfort street ; of the Moravian Church once in 
Fulton street; and of the Tabernacle first in 
Chatham street, then in Broadway near Leonard 
street. Even the Quakers or Friends, notwith- 
standing their well deserved reputation for steady 
habits and aversion to change, have fallen in with 
the current, and have left Liberty and Rose streets, 
having gone up town. The sites formerly occupied 
by these last mentioned places of worship, being, 
as usual, surrendered to secular purposes. Other 
instances might also be given of similar removals. 

This migration of churches has become a very 
serious matter. Its bearings on the welfare of reli- 
gion in our city, should be carefully pondered ; and 
I am glad to see it discussed in various quarters, 
with a view of suggesting or enforcing the duties 
of Christians among us with regard to it. 

A writer in one of our weeklies has recently 
stated that " New York city is a missionary field. 
It contains a resident population of about nine 
hundred thousand, and a transient one of fifty thou- 
sand, comprising over thirty nationalities. There 
are but two hundred and twenty-five evangelical 



270 Recollections of 

cliurclies, accommodating about two hundred thou- 
sand persons. The six lower wards contain a pop- 
ulation of about one hundred and eighty thousand ; 
in the whole of these wards there are but fifteen 
evangelical churches, which will accommodate but 
about ten thousand people." 

Parts of this picture are too darkly colored. 
When the writer makes the population of the first 
six wards to be one hundred and eighty thousand, 
he is under a mistake. The census of 1860 makes 
it ninety-five thousand four hundred and seventeen, 
and judging from the state of things in the lower 
part of the city during the last ten years, dwellings 
constantly giving place to stores, it is somewhat 
doubtful whether the number of inhabitants in 
these wards has not diminished instead of increased 
since the last census. 

Within this section of the city, the writer says 
there are fifteen evangelical churches. This view 
of the case is too favorable. We cannot find fifteen 
evangelical churches within the limits of the first 
six wards, even counting the mission churches, now 
occupying halls as temporary places of worship. 

A different writer has furnished a well written 
article in another of our weeklies, in which he says 



Persons and Events. 271 

tliat " religious congestion" is a prevalent disease in 
our churches, by which he means the habit of cen- 
tralizing or clustering their places of worship 
together, so as to render them less available than 
they might be for the whole population. This evil 
has long existed in New York, and it is to be 
lamented that the same habit of congregating our 
churches still prevails, though perhaps in a less 
degree. We have money, in hundreds of thou- 
sands, expended on churches in comparatively the 
same neighborhood, while other parts of the city 
are left, in a great degree, destitute. 

But this " religious congestion" is not so great an 
evil as the disposition we have just described, to 
remove our places of worship up town, abandoning 
the lower parts of the city, and carrying with them 
the whole church property, though not the entire 
congregation. The first six wards contain, as we 
have seen, a population of ninety-five thousand four 
hundred and seventeen, an increase of twenty-two 
thousand three hundred and sixty-five, since the 
census of 1830, when it was stated at seventy-three 
thousand and fifty-two. And yet within the last 
thirty years, thirty-two churches or congregations 
have been removed from that section of the city, 



272 Recollections of 

leaving fifteen, of whicli four are Roman Catholic, 
and one a Jewish synagogue. Thus, in a popula- 
tion of nearly, if not quite one hundred thousand, 
we have relisrious accommodation for not more than, 
eight thousand or nine thousand Protestant wor- 
shij)pers, or about one in ten of the whole inhabit- 
ants. And yet, great as the evil is already, it 
seems that some of the remaining churches are con- 
templating a removal farther up town, and others 
contiguous to the northern boundaries of the Fifth 
and Sixth Wards are inclined to do likewise. 

No reason can be assigned which will justify 
this abandonment of the lower parts of the city. 
True, I can conceive of circumstances which will 
fully warrant the removal of a church from its 
former location. When the inhabitants of a neigh- 
borhood are gone, and the dwelling-houses are de- 
stroyed, and replaced by warehouses, stores and 
offices, a church situated within such limits should 
be removed. To employ a minister of God's word 
to dispense ordinances in such a locality, is a useless 
waste of time and means. People are not there to 
become his hearers. A church should be placed 
where worshippers, especially the feeble and infirm, 
can have convenient access to it. But under no 



Persons and Events. 273 

circumstances, should a place of worship be demol- 
. ished till the measure has been carefully and delib- 
erately weighed before it is adopted. There are 
sacred associations clustering around a place long 
occupied for the worship of God, that should not 
be rashly invaded or dispelled. They have a sali> 
tary influence on the moral sensibilities of the peo- 
j)le, much needed in a bustling, busy city like ours. 
There can be no doubt, however, on the question, 
while a church stands surrounded by dwellings, either 
of rich or poor, in such numbers as to require it for 
their religious accommodation. Under such cir- 
cumstances, it should not be taken away. If the 
inhabitants are poor, they may have the more need 
of such accommodation ready furnished to them. 
"To the poor the Gospel is preached," our Lord 
has told us, is one of the signs of His coming. 
And this is exactly one of the points in which the 
city is so much behind its duty. If rich men move 
away from the neighborhood, or " move up town," 
as the phrase is, and if they would have a church 
at a convenient distance, let them put their hands 
to the work, and out of theii' abundance, build 
a church for themselves. But let them not leave 

their poorer brethren, who must continue to reside as 
18 



274 Recollections of 

formerly, without either a church or a pastor. And 
even should a combination of circumstances arise, 
which may render a sale of the church building and 
its grounds unavoidable or expedient, the same 
principle of duty requires that the proceeds, or at 
least an adequate part of them, should always be 
appropriated so as to provide in a suitable way 
for the worshippers remaining in the neighborhood, 
in preference to employing them entirely for the 
comfort and advantage of those who have gone to 
a more fashionable part of the city, and who may 
wish to have a church in a style of architecture suit- 
ed to their taste and circumstances. 

Now then, what should be done, without delay, 
to remedy the existing evil, and to prevent it fi'om 
spreading still farther ? Obviously, the Christian 
public should endeavor to regain the ground we 
have lost, and having gained it, to keep it. To 
speak more in detail : the stronger churches of our 
city should establish and sustain throughout the 
lower wards, organized churches with competent 
pastors in every neighborhood now destitute, where 
there is a sufficient number of inhabitants to form 
a congregation, and who could be persuaded to 
unite for that purpose. Especially should churches 



Persons and Events. 275 

once situated in these wards, feel this to be their 
duty. But the obligation does not rest on them 
alone. It is a duty common to us all who can take 
part in the service. We are aware that not a little 
has been done in various parts of the city to es- 
tablish mission schools, which in some cases have 
been nurtured into mission churches. But what- 
ever may have been done elsewhere, little compara- 
tively has been done for the multitudes which are 
found below Canal street. It cannot be denied 
that those regions have a special claim upon our 
sympathies and efforts. Our strong churches once 
among them are now gone, and we should be the 
more ready to do something to make up for the 
loss. We give our best God-speed to the missions 
now sustained among them. But they are so few 
in number that we may exclaim, " What are they 
among so many?" Nor can these efforts, while 
they are simply missionary stations, answer for the 
purpose. The missionary stations now worship- 
ping in halls or lofts, should become missionary 
churches with a regular church organization, and 
suitable places of worship to give them strength 
and permanency, and means should be taken to 
provide for them able and faithful men for their 



276 Recollections of 

pastors, sustained by influential laymen wlio will be 
willing to sacrifice something of their own conven- 
ience for the sake of the work. It is a great mis- 
take to suppose that men of inferior attainments 
are adequate to fulfil pastoral duty in such places. 
The duties and resj^onsibilities require tact, talent, 
and piety in no ordinary degree, if the man would 
be successful. We have no doubt that such men 
could be found. When our Lord taught that " to 
the poor the Grospel was to be preached," He set the 
example of preaching to them Himself, and the best, 
most accomplished, and most highly honored of 
His servants should count it " enough to be as his 
Master." 

And now to give this subject an additional 
survey, let us look beyond the lower wards, and 
see what are the strength and position of the 
churches in the whole city. Judging fi'om the 
rate of increase during the ten or twenty years 
previous to 1865, and from other data altogether 
reliable, the whole resident population of our 
city must be at this day about one million and fifty 
thousand; and this, with some fifty thousand or 
more of transient populatian, makes one million one 
hundred thousand of inhabitants for whom places 



Persons and Events. 277 

of worship should be adequately provided. Have 
we any thing like it ? 

The whole number of our churches or congre- 
gations, as reported by those who have inquired 
carefully into the subject, is three hundred. This 
including not only all denominations, Protestant 
or Catholic, Christian or Jewish, but even such 
mission churches as have reached any thing like 
stability. Including all such places of worship, 
the average capacity is not more than eight hun- 
dred, even on a liberal allowance. This being the 
case, we have church accommodations for two 
hundred and forty thousand, out of a population 
of one million one hundred thousand, leaving 
eight hundred and sixty thousand for whom no 
accommodation is provided. It is not to be sup- 
posed, however, that the entire population can be 
in church at any one time. Taking account of 
those who are in infancy, or are sick, and those 
who are needed to attend upon them or to 
discharge household duties that are indis2:)ensable, 
there may be perhaps one-third of the whole num- 
ber of inhabitants that must be absent from church 
at a given time. But still, even supposing our 
present places of worship completely filled, we 



278 Recollections of 

have more than four hundred and ninety- three 
thousand, whose duty it is to attend church, but 
who could find no room. 

There is still another inquiry of much impor- 
tance. Are the churches losing or gaining on the 
multitudes for whom there is no religious pro- 
vision in our sanctuaries ? Does the number of 
our churches hold' the same proportion to the 
number of our inhabitants that it did, say fifty 
years ago? In 1810, the population was ninety 
six thousand three hundred and seventy-three, 
or with the usual proportion of transient popu- 
lation, viz., four thousand, the whole num- 
ber would be one hundred thousand three hun- 
dred and seventy-three. At the same time we 
had fifty-one churches, and allowing, as before, 
eight hundred persons as the average capacity of 
each place of worship, we had accommodation 
for forty thousand eight hundred worshippers. 
Deducting one-third of the whole population as 
unable to attend church at a given time, viz., 
thirty-three thousand four hundred and eighty- 
four, there remains less than twenty-seven thou- 
sand for whom there was no accommodation. In 
other words, there was in 1810, little more than 



Persons and Events. 279 

one-fourtli of tlie population for whom there was 
no churcli accommodation; and in 1864, there is 
more than one third — ^perhaps, I should say, 
nearly one-half This is an alarming increase in 
religious destitution within the lapse of fifty or 
fifty-four years, and if allowed to go on un- 
checked, we may soon lose our good name as a 
Christian city. No wonder that crime should be 
so on the increase as to startle our magistrates at 
the developments constantly spread before them. 
Esj)ecially in a community like ours, there is no 
power effectually to restrain or subdue crime but 
the power of the Gospel. Our Government is a 
great experiment to show how far the Bible can 
be made to take the place of the bayonet. 

Let it not be said that the churches we have 
now are not filled. If the churches we have now 
were diminished by one-half, they would soon be 
less filled than ever; and if they were doubled 
in number, they would soon be better filled than 
they are now. This is the lesson taught by 
universal experience in such matters, and in scores 
of places around us. What we want in the 
community is a church-going spirit, and the best 
way to produce it is to multiply places of wor- 



280 Recollections of 

ship up to the wants of the people. The spirit 
that does this, will also do what is needful to fill 
tla^em ; in the language of our Lord, will be ready 
to "go out into the highways and hedges, and 
compel them to come in, that His house may be 
filled." 

"We ought not to conclude these statements till 
we have submitted to the consideration of 
Protestants a comparison of the relative growth 
of different denominations since 1810. This will 
be seen in the following tabular statement embra- 
cing the more prominent denominations now in our 
city: 

Denominations. Tear 1810. Tear 1864. 

Baptist 6 33 

Episcopal 13 58 

Jews 1 24 

Methodist 7 41 

Presbyterian 9 55 

Reformed Dutch 8 22 

Eoman Catholic 2 31* 



* The statement in this article respecting the whole number of 
churches in our city, and the number of those belonging to diflferent 
denominations, is taken partly from the City Directory, and partly 
from the returns made by the denominations themselves. If there 
are any inaccuracies, they must be so trifling as not to affect the 
merits or demerits of the case. The number may be less, not more 
than I have stated, for I have included in the count, several churches, 
go called, now or lately worshipping in halls or lofts : and experience 
shows that in such instances, what was reported as a church one 
year, is sometimes extinct the yeai following. 



Persons and Events. 281 

True, this extraordinary increase of Catholics 
and Jews, is no doubt to be attributed in a great 
degree to the unusual influx of foreigners during 
the last fifteen or twenty years. But this does not 
render the duties of Protestants ^ less urgent and 
imperative. Our duty is the same to maintain the 
ascendency of Protestant faith and worship among 
those around us, whether they come from abroad 
or are natives of our own country. 

There are few Christians among us who can 
look over the statements which are here presented, 
without a feeling of anxiety for the future. I well 
remember how earnestly the late Dr. Alexander 
expressed his lamentations on the subject. He 
saw the tendency of our leading Christian men to 
gather in a few favorite places of worship, there 
concentrating their means and influence ; and he 
felt it to be his duty, as he said, to urge upon such 
men of his own charge the obligation resting on 
them to employ their means of doing good by 
identifying themselves with new enterprises for 
establishing churches where they are needed. It is 
a lesson which should often be urged by ministers 
of the Gospel. Christian men do not seem to 
realize their duty in this respect. They hide 



282 Recollections of 

their talents in a napkin ; their power to do good 
is not faithfully employed. They attend a church 
where they enjoy an able ministry, pleasant sur- 
roundings in a congregation and edifice to their 
taste, where their families as well as themselves 
are pleased; and they are then apt to conclude 
that this is the whole duty of man in regard to 
the Church of Christ, so far as they and theirs are 
concerned. 

We want a different spirit awakened in men 
of this class. We want to see them feel their 
duty respecting parts of our city where people are 
perishing for want of knowledge. In a word, we 
want a fresh unction from the Holy Spirit upon 
evangelical Christians in New York, to make them 
feel the importance of chuech extension as a 
great duty of our day. 

I say evangelical Christians in New York, not 
only because New York is behind many of her sister 
cities in the number of her churches compared with 
the population, but also because of the influence 
which chief cities always exercise on the religious 
condition of a country. This has become a great 
question in Christian ethics, and it cannot be too 
carefully considered by our citizens if they would 



Persons and Events. 283 

realize their responsibilities not only to God, but 
to the inhabitants of our highly favored land. 

No one can deny that the intercourse and occu- 
pations of a city have a tendency ©f their own, to 
develop the intellectual and moral powers of man. 
" As iron sharpeneth iron, so doth the countenance 
of a man his friend." But if iron sharpeneth iron, it 
must be done by coming into close contact or fre- 
quent collision ; and it is this very thing, produced 
by the daily occurrences of city life, which sharpens 
and polishes the minds and manners of men. It is 
this which imparts quickness, sagacity, and increased 
activity to their faculties; and as knowledge is 
power, and stronger minds vdll have sway not only 
over the weak but over those having less strength 
than themselves, it follows that cities will always 
take the lead in human affairs. If the race is for 
wealth, the city takes it. If the object be to create 
a constellation of intellectual luminaries, they are 
found clustered in our cities. If the aim is to reach 
distinction in a political or civil career, the most 
successful candidate is usually the man who starts 
with the advantages of city associations. It results 
indeed alike from the laws of our nature and from 
the structure of society, that cities will always send 



284 Recollections of 

fortli an influence for good or for evil through 
the countries around them, while they are com- 
paratively unmoved by the views and habits pre- 
vailing in the country. It was once said by a 
great man, who herein made a great mistake, that 
" large cities are great sores on the body politic." 
There is nothing in their nature or relative posi- 
tion which should render them such evils to 
a people. They should rather be viewed as the 
great heart of the body politic, their pulsations 
being felt through every part and member of the 
public frame. 

This is exemplified from the earliest history of 
the world. The " cities of the plain" were corrupt, 
and the entire plain became corrupted with them 
till both sunk into a common ruin. Nineveh 
and Babylon furnish lessons of the same import. 
Athens imparted refinement and patriotism to 
Greece. Rome cherished a spirit of bravery and 
love of arms that spread through Italy and render- 
ed her finally mistress of the world. And when 
she became effeminate through luxury and profli- 
gacy, the whole empire fell asunder as a dissolving 
mass of corruption. 

The same lesson is taught by examples from 



Persons and Events. 285 

sacred history. Jerusalem is expressly charged by 
our Lord with having done evil that ultimately 
brought ruin on the whole nation ; and on the 
other hand, while Jerusalem remained faithful to 
her duty, observing her divine ordinances and obey- 
ing the voice of the prophets, the effect was visible 
to the very extremities of the land. And here we 
see one great reason why the Most High centered 
so many privileges in that leading metropolis. 
The Ark of the Covenant had as full a meaning 
while it sojourned at Kiijath-jearim as after it had 
been placed in the city of David. The temple of 
the Lord would have been as much the temple of 
the Lord if it had been built on the borders of the 
wilderness as when it stood within the walls of 
Jerusalem. Indeed, in some respects, would not 
equity have required that these tokens of God's 
presence and means of access to Him should have 
been distributed through the nation for the more 
equal accommodation of all ? But such was not the 
divine appointment. Jerusalem, long known even 
in the days of the Canaanites as the leading city of 
the land, is "the place where the Lord chose to 
make his name known." There was the temple; 
there the ark coutaininof the tables of testimony ; 



286 Recollections of 

there were the daily sacrifices ; there the great fes- 
tivals at which all Israel must appear before the 
Lord. And why? why this concentration of 
privileges in the one city. It was because Jeru- 
salem as a city was a great radiating point, giving 
forth a moral influence to be felt far and wide, and 
so long as she retained her allegiance to Jehovah, 
the nation could not well sink into idolatry. 
Hence did God so fortify that metropolis as a cita- 
del of truth and worship ; and although in the 
present state of the world cities may in some re- 
spects not sway whole lands as in ancient times, 
yet still, what Jerusalem was to the people of 
Israel, every metropolis must be and will be in a 
great degree to the vast majority of the entire 
nation. In our day, let Paris set a fashion and all 
France follows it. The great man in London is a 
great man through all England. 

A very careful regard was had to this principle 
of social and moral influence, in the labors of our 
Lord and His apostles. It is recognized in the 
very first directions given to the twelve when they 
received their commission. " And it came to pass," 
we are told, " that when Jesus had made an end of 
commanding His twelve disciples, He departed 



Persons and Events. 287 

thence to teach and to preach in their cities ;" and 
afterwards when He "appointed other seventy 
also, He sent them two and two before His face 
into every city and place whither He Himself 
would come." Accordingly, while you find Him at 
times preaching the gospel and performing wonder- 
ful works on the side of the mountain, on the shore 
and bosom of the sea, it was in cities like Caper- 
naum and Bethsaida, but especially in the city of 
Jerusalem that He was most frequently found ma- 
king Himself known as the promised Messiah. And 
when He had suffered and was received up into 
glory, and instructed His disciples that " repen- 
tance and remission of sins should be preached in 
His name among all nations," how carefully does 
He add, "beginning at Jerusalem." That com- 
mand they faithfully obeyed ; and after they had 
filled Jerusalem with their doctrine, we next find 
them in the city of Samaria, the aspiring rival of 
Jerusalem as a Capital in the Holy Land. Then 
as we follow them they are in Damascus, a city 
celebrated for its wealth and power from the days 
of Abraham. Then Cesarea \vith its gorgeous 
palaces and temples, receives the gospel from Peter 
and others of the apostles ; and in that city the first 



288 Recollections op 

fruits of tlie Grentile world are converted to the 
faith. Afterwards they are in Antioch, long 
known as the most powerful city in the east, and 
there the disciples are first called Christians, the 
name by which they have been known ever since, 
and will be known to the end of the world. Next 
we trace them to Philippi, expressly described in 
Scripture as the " chief city in that part of Mace- 
donia, and a colony." Athens, still renowned for 
her schools and her philosophers ; Ephesus, with a 
fame world-wide for her temple of Diana ; Corinth, 
noted for her riches, her elegance and her luxuries ; 
all in their turn are fields of apostolic labor ; and 
at length we find them in Rome herself, penetrating 
into the very household of Caesar, and in that Im- 
perial city " the Acts of the Apostles" leaves Paul 
laboring year after year till his life was surrender- 
ed in martyrdom. Kor should it be forgotten that 
to the Romans, the Corinthians, the Ephesians, the 
Philippians, Thessalonians and Colossians, many of 
the inspired Epistles were immediately addressed, 
thus leaving a conspicuous and imperishable rec- 
ord of the responsibility resting on the inhabit- 
ants of cities as guardians of Gospel truth. 

In this manner was Christianity spread in apos- 



Persons and Events. 289 

tolic times, and by apostolic men speaking and 

acting " as they were moved by the Holy Ghost." 

They did not neglect "the regions round about," 

but their first aim was to occupy and Christianize 

the great cities of every land to which they came, 

as the most effectual way of reaching and influ- 

encinof the nation at lars^e. 

And now farther on this point. I have said that 

in the j)resent state of mankind, cities may not in 

some respects sway whole nations as in ancient 

days. But there are other respects, in which their 

influence has become greatly increased in modern 

times. In all highly civilized countries, commerce 

has become, in our day, what is of en called a 

Third Estate, a new embodiment or centre of 

power; and as commerce creates our cities, the 

increased importance of the one must enhance the 

influence of the other. And then, as a means of 

rendering this influence the more extensive, we 

must remember, that owing to the present facility 

of intercourse between places once viewed as 

widely separated, the remotest corners of a country 

are brought into daily if not hourly communication 

with the city, imbibing from it its views, sympathies 

and impulses, as much so indeed as though these 
19 



290 Recollections op 

once distant regions liad become suburbs of the 
town. And all this again has no doubt contrib- 
uted, to what wise observers and careful statists 
have shown to be one great distinction of the 
present age ; I mean the tendency to concentration 
in cities. England never saw so large a number of 
her people gathered into London as she sees now. 
The same may be said of France with regard to 
Paris, the same of Germany also, with regard to 
her chief capitals. And notwithstanding the fruit- 
ful fields which invite strong hands and willing 
hearts into the rural districts in our own favored 
land, our cities are filling up with a rapidity that 
far outstrips the country. 

"The thing is of the Lord;" and is to be 
viewed as among the significant signs of the times. 
I have often spoken of the present age as a period 
of preparation ; a period, in which God is ordering 
and arranging the state of the whole earth, so as to 
provide for the wide and rapid spread of the Gos- 
pel which is to bring in the glory of the Millennial 
day. That great revolution is to be accomplished 
with a suddenness, which men are little inclined to 
expect, and which is designed more fully to prove 
the work to be His with whom " one day is as a 



Persons and Events. 291 

thousand years, and a thousand years as one day." 
So has He Himself described it, when He says, 
" As the lightning which lighteneth out of the one 
part under heaven, shineth unto the other part 
under heaven, so shall the Son of man be in His 
day." And here we see one of the instrumentali- 
ties which God is preparing for the great and 
rapid conversion of the world unto Himself. We 
see it in His gathering so large a portion of the 
human family into cities, where His word can 
reach multitudes the more speedily, and at the 
same time, the new converts go forth with the 
increased advantages of this social and civil posi- 
tion, to spread His triumph through whole lands. 
Accordingly, it is foretold by Isaiah, " In that day 
shall five cities in the land of Egypt speak the 
language of Canaan and swear to the Lord of 
Hosts;" and then it follows, "In that day there 
shall be an altar to the Lord in the midst of the 
land of Egypt, and a pillar in the border thereof 
to the Lord." But before the whole land or the 
borders thereof, shall be pervaded by the worship 
of God and the spirit of truth, the cities must 
speak the language of Canaan, and avow their 
allesriance unto God. 



292 Recollections of 

I will not pursue the discussion of this princi- 
ple any farther. Let me contemplate its applica- 
tion. It has a language to New York that cannot 
be mistaken, and ought to be deeply pondered. I 
have alluded in another place to her numbers 
increasing with a rapidity that seems almost fabu- 
lous ; to her territory reaching from sea to sea, and 
to the wealth flowing into her lap from every 
quarter of the globe. Nor is this growth the 
result of accident or of contingencies that might 
change in a day. The Almighty hand that has 
marked out the channels of rivers and the ranges 
of mountains on this spacious continent, has or- 
dained it by His unchangeable decree, that the 
streams of commerce must all mainly centre here ; 
and besides, He has so planted our hemisphere on 
the map of the globe, that the trade of Europe 
with Eastern Asia must ultimately pass through 
the hands of our merchants. Judo-ins^ from the 
past, in ten years more New York will be the 
second city in the civilized world, and in less than 
a hundred years she will be the first, first in num- 
bers, first in wealth, and what is more still, first in 
that elastic and indomitable energy which is our 
leading distinction among the nations of the earth. 



Persons and Events. 293 

Wliat a future does this open for our children 
and our children's children ! But what a fearful 
responsibility does it throw upon them and upon 
us ! If from him to whom much is given, much 
shall be required, how high must be the scale of 
our duties to Grod and His Gospel! Should reli- 
gion either lose, or fail to strengthen its hold on this 
city by our supineness, " the shadow on the sun- 
dial" both for the land and the world, will have 
gone back far beyond " ten degrees." 

I fondly hope for better things, and my hope is 
strengthened, when I look back to our early his- 
tory. It must be to all of us a token for good, 
that this and other chief cities of our country, were 
founded by men who brought their religion with 
them from the land of their fathers; and among 
the first dwellings reared for themselves was a 
house ^ for divine worship. The street on which 
stood the church where I spent the first years of 
my ministry, is endeared to me by that association. 
There had been erected one of the oldest churches 
in our City ; and it is said to have been the first 
place of worship occupied by the inhabitants, after 
they ventured to hold their assemblies outside of 
the walls or stockade erected to protect the infant 



294 Recollections of 

settlement from the sudden attacks of the Indians. 
Generation after generation lias since passed away, 
and yet New York has never been left " without a 
seed to serve" the God of their fathers from the 
time its inhabitants were so few that "a child 
might count them." And now when like Tyrus of 
old "situate at the entrance of the sea," our city 
has become the " merchant of the people of many 
isles," our name known, and our commerce sought 
by every nation on the face of the earth, what are 
we doing to meet our high responsibilities result- 
ing from our increased and daily increasing power ? 
Is our influence felt for good or for evil throughout 
our land, our continent, if not our world ? Are we 
careful to study the measure of our duty both to 
God and to man, and the temptations to evil by 
which we are beset ? It is not to be denied that 
there are channels arising out of our position as a 
great commercial metropolis, through which "ini- 
quity is coming in like a flood," and which should 
be watclied with increasing vigilance. 

We are the point at which the inhabitants of 
the two hemispheres are made to meet ; we form 
the great gate-way through which the people of 
foreign lands come to us in ever increasing multi- 



Persons and Events. 295 

tudes; and while among them are those who 
should be welcomed as valuable acquisitions to 
both the church and the state, there are too many 
who bring with them a rabid infidelity which aims 
to overthrow every thing precious whether civil or 
sacred ; a spirit of blasphemy which, in its wild 
ravings, seems akin to that of which our Lord has 
said, " This kind goeth not out but by prayer and 
fasting." Are we doing what we can to infuse the 
life of religion into this dark mass of ignorance 
and unbelief which lies piled up at our door, to 
exorcise this demoniac spirit which may in the end 
obtain the mastery over us, if we do not soon 
obtain the mastery over it ? 

We have in the midst of us sinks of iniquity 
where orgies are held too vile to be named, and 
dens of the gambler where every species of fj'aud 
and blasphemy are practised by night and by day. 
Their doors leading down to death stand boldly 
open to draw in their victims, especially from the 
ranks of the young, and to blast them with a curse 
that may follow them for time and for eternity. 
If we are not willing to put forth our own hands 
to abate these deadly nuisances, to cleanse our city 
from these Augean stables, are we faithfully and 



296 Recollections of 

promptly sustaining those wlio are engaged in the 
self-denying, martyr-like work ? 

In view of the religious destitution already 
described, of the crowds that have no heart for the 
sanctuary of God's worship, and could find no 
room if they had the heart, are we doing what we 
can to supply the want which forebodes so much 
evil in the future. The cause of Domestic Mis- 
sions has not been entirely neglected by the 
churches of our land ; but whether much or 
little is done on oui' frontiers and other destitute 
parts of our country, City Missions have been 
most unwisely and unhappily denied their due 
share of attention. From what has been said it 
is evident that the religious welfare of both city 
and country requires that our cities be carefully 
guarded, and adequate provision made for their 
religious wants. In no city is this of more import- 
ance than our own, and I hail it as an auspicious 
sign that some of our churches are bestirring them- 
selves in the work with a zeal which shows that 
they feel the responsibility resting upon them. I 
hope that the example will be followed by many 
others, and that these enterprises now commenced 
for the establishment of new churches will not be 



Persons and Events. 297 

allowed to fail from the want of patience and per- 
severance. I have seen too many instances of these 
shortlived efforts, and men amply qualified for 
their work retii'ing fi*om the field, exhausted and 
perhaps broken-hearted by the conviction that they 
had failed in their object and that their labors were 
lost. It is not enough that such men have our con- 
tributions and our prayers. They should have the 
presence and co-operation of men who from their 
station in the Christian Community would 
strengthen the hands of the preacher, and contrib- 
ute to create confidence in him and his enterprise 
in the minds of those among whom he is labor- 
ing. 

In connection with this destitution of sanctuary 
privileges, look at the present state of the rising 
generation. Every heart will bless God for our 
Sunday-Schools. They have stayed a plague that 
might otherwise have spread death worse than the 
grave among our own sons and daughters. Their 
rise and progress are among the richest blessings 
that have distinguished the last half century. I 
can remember when the Sunday-School was un- 
known in our churches ; and when the early move- 
ments were made to enlist the Christian community 



298 Recollections of 

in the cause, so little was it understood and aj)pre- 
ciated that it was for a time earnestly opposed by 
some of our good men as leading to a profanation 
of the Lord's day. But these prejudices have been 
overcome. Though the first labors were compara- 
tively partial in our city, the tree, if small, made 
itself known by its fruits. "The little one has 
become a thousand," and the church would scarce 
be viewed as deserving her name that had, not her 
Sunday-School. But notwithstanding all that has 
been done, how much remains to be done ! There 
is yet " much land to be possessed." Though thou- 
sands have been saved as " brands plucked out of 
the burning," what hideous spectacles of juvenile 
depravity blacken the records of our courts, and 
startle us with horror as we read their foul history 
day after day ! Our jails and penitentiaries still em- 
brace within their dreary walls many who, though 
young and tender in years, are old and hardened in 
crime ; nor can this frightful dominion of guilt be 
arrested and overcome till Christians shall gird 
themselves up with new zeal to save these victims 
of vice from the ruin to which they are hastening. 

If wealth is poured into our hands with un- 
wonted abundance, what are we doing with it? 



Persons and Events. 299 

Are we making it an idol, wasting it in prodigality 
hurtful to ourselves, or employing it for God ? 

No wise observer can fail to perceive how just 
and solemn are the words of Him " who spake as 
never man spake," when He warns us against the 
" deceitfulness of riches," and adds, " How hardly 
shall a rich man enter the kingdom of Heaven." 
In a city like this, we see it every day in the multi- 
tudes who employ overflowing wealth to pam- 
per their appetites, to minister to their pride, and 
harden their hearts in forgetfulness of the Giver by 
abuse of His gifts. But the evil does not end with 
those who glory in this abuse of their abundance. 
No watchman can have stood on Zion's walls till 
he has grown gray in the service, who has not seen 
how few Christians possess much of this world 
without having their hearts more or less infected 
and distracted by the love of it. They may not 
themselves perceive the injury they are suffering; 
they may be the last of all to see it ; thus showing 
how great is that " deceitfulness of riches" against 
which we have our Lord's solemn warning ; how 
insidiously they wind themselves into the heart and 
steal it away fi-om God and from the duties we owe 
Him. There is but one effectual security against 



300 Recollections of 

tlie seductive temptation. It is by using our 
wealtli freely for tlie service of Him who gave it 
to us. This, and this alone, can take the poison 
from it ; and to this conviction Christians must be 
brought, before their own hearts can be safe, or the 
Church at large become animated by that spirit 
which is yet to bring the whole earth to the 
knowledge of the Gospel. 

We must all rejoice to see that this spirit is ex- 
tending itself among the churches in our day. In 
some cases, large fortunes are inherited, and in 
others large fortunes are acquired; and "the owners 
thereof" feel that they have something better to do 
with their large means than to squander their 
money, or hoard it for the benefit of their heirs. 
And well, both for themselves and their heirs, that 
it should be so. "There is a sore evil," says 
Solomon, " which I have seen under the sun, 
namely, riches kept for the owners thereof to their 
hurt ; but those riches perish by evil travail ; for 
he begetteth a son and there is nothing in his 
hand ;" or, he hath nothing in his hand, that is, he 
has nothing to do, as some interpret the words. 
And the sore evil which Solomon may have seen, 
perhaps felt to his own sorrow, hoarded riches 



Persons and Events. 301 

making idlers of a man's sons, we may see every- 
day. Here are tv^^o yontlis of the same age, of like 
talents and training ; but the one lias large expec- 
tations on whicli to lean, and tke other is obliged to 
rely, under God, on his own exertions. Where will 
you find the two, and how will they compare, when 
they have lived to advanced manhood ? The one 
scarce known except among idlers like himself, his • 
mind morbid and diseased from inaction, tired of 
life, tired of himself, or perhaps, from want of 
employment, seeking for excitement in sensual in- 
dulgence which is hurrying him to his grave. The 
other, with his faculties developed and his face 
brightened by a life of honorable activity, is known 
and felt throughout the community as a man who, 
in his exertions for his own advantage, is also 
building up our city and our country in character 
and strength ; with a hand accustomed to work, he 
gives his ready aid to whatever promotes the 
public good ; and in the consciousness of aiming to 
do his duty faithfully, he enjoys life and enjoys 
himself. True, there are honored exceptions to the 
dark side of this picture. We have men who in- 
herit fortunes, and who instead of being idlers are 
active benefacto s in the community, and who em- 



302 Recollections of 

ploy their abundant resources with a liberal hand to 
promote the public good both in Church and State. 
But these are exceptions, not samples of the class 
to which they belong. It cannot be otherwise. 
All our institutions are based on the principle that 
we are a nation of working men, and that if there 
must be an aristocracy in every country, the aris- 
tocracy with us is not an aristocracy of wealth or 
of birth, but of enterprise, industry, and integrity. 
We have nothing about us to perpetuate or coun- 
tenance idlers as a class. In our stirring nation, 
such men are exotics, and are often driven in self- 
defence to go abroad in order to find company to 
sympathize with them in the unenviable distinc- 
tion of having nothing to do. 

If, then, our men of wealth would not injure 
their children by it, they must employ it freely for 
purposes of good. I would say to them, give your 
children a wise share of it, enough to enable them 
to begin life with advantage and on a scale corre- 
sponding with your present rank and position in 
the world, but not enough to make them feel that 
they have nothing to do for themselves. You will 
thus have given them both excitement and en 
couragement to act well their part. You will 



Persons and Events. 303 

render their patrimony not a loss, but a gain. 
With the goods of this world which they inherit 
from you, they will inherit a name all the more 
honored among men because you will have signalized 
it by your own deeds of piety and mercy; and they 
will inherit a blessing from God which He is 
pleased to bestow on those whose fathers have 
served Him faithfully and devotedly with all that 
is theirs. And then, too, you will have trained 
them to acquire respect and gain a high station in 
a land where, as we have said, no nobility is known 
but that which a man creates for himself. Indeed, 
I have sometimes thou2:ht that one desio^n of the 
Most High in framing the social structure of this 
nation on the principles of freedom and equality 
which distino-uish us, was to constrain men of 
affluence to set the Christian world a noble ex- 
ample of how wealth should be emj^loyed ; to 
shew that he who has most of it should neither 
squander nor hoard it, but should view himself as 
a steward under God on a larger scale ; and should 
act, not like the barren sands of the desert, which, 
though saturated with rain from heaven, give back 
neither life nor beauty, but like the genial soil 
which God has blesse.l, and which in return for 



304 Recollections of 

Heaven's rain and sun, displays its fertility in 
flowers tliat fill tlie air witli fragrance, and in 
harvests tliat sustain liealtli and life in every thing 
that lives. 

Let us be assured such a time is coming — a 
time when the claims of God and His Gospel on 
the rich will be felt and owned ; and if, in view of 
that wide-spread darkness which has long covered 
the earth, I am asked,' ' Watchman, what of the 
night ? — watchman, what of the night V I can 
answer, " The morning cometh," for I can see a 
token of the breaking day in the goodly number of 
those who are educating their minds up to a stand- 
ard of duty befitting their means of doing good, 
and the day in which they live. Among them are 
men who stand high among our merchant princes. 
Let them cultivate the spirit of large-hearted 
generosity which already distinguishes them, and 
they will be followed by others who will show 
themselves ready to every good word and work. 
Every one must see that at the present time the 
heart of the city is greatly enlarged. War has 
its evils, and frightful evils, esj)ecially when it is a 
civil war like ours. And yet good may be evoked 
from the calamity, terrible as it is. A generous 



Persons and Events. 305 

feeling lias been shown, not only to tlie wounded 
and suffering of our armies, but to tlie Command- 
ers who have led them to victories which do 
honor to the nation. Such a spirit of munificence 
grows by exercise, and the generosity thus 
awakened will last and be felt when the present 
scenes of bloodshed no longer call for either pity 
or gratitude. This benevolence towards men is 
closely allied to a liberal, spirit in the cause of 
religion; and we view it as the harbinger of 
enlarged gifts for the spread of the Grospel. Let our 
rich men lead the way as some of them are doing 
now ; let our merchants contribute of their gains 
on a scale commensurate with their ability and 
their position in this great commercial metropolis, 
and one of the predicted signs of the coming 
millennium will already be seen. " The daughter 
of Tyre," says David, " shall be there with a gift ; 
even the rich among the people shall entreat Thy 
favor." — "The merchandise of Tyre," says Isaiah, 
" shall be holiness to the Lord ; it shall not be 
treasured or laid up." And again, "surely the 
isles shall wait for me, the ships of Tarshish first," 
that is, the choice merchantmen of the day taking 

the lead, " thp ships of Tarshish first, to bring thy 
20 



306 Recollections of 

sons from afar, their silver and their gold with 
them unto the name of the Lord thy God and to 
the Holy One of Israel, because He hath glorified 
thee." 

Happy the man who in this spirit pours forth 
his abundant stores at the foot of the Cross ; and 
happy the city where such men dwell ! Thrice 
happy the city whose merchants will be the first to 
show the illustrious example, who will bring the 
" ships of Tarshish, their silver and their gold with 
them" into that leading place which the prophet 
has assigned them in the work of spreading 
salvation to the farthest borders of the earth ! 
Thrice happy the city that will thus arise as a 
morning star of hope to our now benighted world ; 
as a leading star in that bright constellation which 
will pour its radiance over all nations, when " the 
light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, 
and the light of the sun shall be seven-fold, as 
the light of seven days !" 

It cannot be deemed strange that I should feel 
a strong solicitude concerning our duties and 
prospects as a Christian city. Nearly fifty-eight 
years have passed since I commenced my work as 



Persons and Events. 307 

a preacher of the Gospel, and New York has been 
from first to last the scene of my labors. It would 
be an offence, both against God and my own 
feelings, if the future of a place where my whole 
public life has been spent should not be made the 
subject of deep concern. I have lived to see my 
fathers and brethren one after another pass away 
to their reward, until, so far as I know, I am the 
sole survivor of those who belonged to the ministry 
in our city when I entered it. Men " whose praise 
is in all the Churches," as Livingston, Abeel, Mc- 
Murray, Milledoler, Brodhead, Kodgers, Mason, 
McLeod, Miller, Romeyn, Moore, Hobart, Lyell, 
Wainwright, Anthon, Williams, Cone, Bangs, and 
others, are all gone ; and, as if standing at their 
hallowed graves, and speaking in their honored 
names, had I a voice that could reach every Church 
of every name in the midst of us, I would entreat 
them to remember that we are "a city set upon 
a hill that cannot be hid ;" and that the admo- 
nition is addressed to us with a significance that 
should lead us to ponder it carefully, " Behold I 
have set before thee an open door, and no man 
can shut it ; hold that fast which thou hast, that no 
man take thy crown." 



308 Recollections of 

I rejoice to believe that the prospect is bright- 
ened with earnests which may give us strong hope 
for the future. One of the most cheering among 
them is found in the spirit now animating the 
ministers of the Gospel, all the more encouraging 
too, . because so plainly to be seen among the 
younger members of the profession, who of course 
may be expected to be longest in the service. 

I am far from anticipating evil from the 
change which, as all must admit, has taken place 
in the ministrations of our pulpits. Every age 
in the Church has its appropriate work, and 
the ministry given to her by her divine Head 
will be suited to the work which he has then 
given her to do. There are periods when she is 
specially called to contend against some alarming 
heresy. Her Lord then qualifies her ministry with 
gifts adapted to the vindication of His truth. 
There are times, again, when she needs an enlarged 
zeal for spreading abroad the Word of Life to those 
who are perishing through lack of knowledge. 
He then anoints her ministry with a spirit which 
may arouse her to feel her responsibility as the 
Light of the world ; and here, as I conceive, lies 
the chief feature of the change which the pulpit 



Persons and Events. 309 

among us has undergone. If it shows less of the 
power to demolish error, it has more, of the spirit- 
stirring tone that excites the zeal of the Christian 
to labor for the spread of the Saviour's kingdom 
both at home and abroad. 

Our venerated Clergy who have finished 
their course and kept the faith, have done their 
work, and have done it well ; but highly as we may 
respect their memories, and grateful as we may feel 
for th€ services they have rendered to the cause of 
truth, I do not think the Churches of the city ever 
possessed a ministry better qualified for the work 
of their day than they now enjoy. 



310 Recollections of 



CHAPTER XIV. 

Interview between Rev. Dr. Rodgers and General Hamilton. 
— Convention to frame the Constitution of the United 
States. — Perplexities attending their Deliberations. — 
Erroneous Statement of their Proceedings on Dr. Frank- 
lin's Motion to appoint a Chaplain. — True Account in the 
Madison Papers. — Forgetfulness of God, with Self- 
Exaltation, A prevalent Sin of the Nation. — The Sin re- 
buked in the present National Troubles. — State Rights 
AND Federal Sovereignty, as exhibited in the Letters 
of General Washington. — Moral Considerations which 
should contribute to the future Peace and Harmony of 
the Nation. 

It is said tliat when General Hamilton returned 
from meeting the Convention in 1787, at which the 
Constitution of the United States was adopted, he 
was met by Rev. Dr. Rodgers, and, referring to the 
Convention and its deliberations, he asked the 
Doctor how he liked the Constitution. 

The Doctor answered, " Not so well as I hoped 
I should like it, General. It has this great defect. 
The name of God is not mentioned in it, nor is He 
acknowledged as Governor among the nations, from 
first to last in the paper." 

" I declare," said General Hamilton, with much 



Persons and Events. 311 

earnestness, " I declare we forgot it, and mucli do I 
regret that it should have been so." 

And ever since his day, thousands and thou- 
sands of our countrymen have regretted the same 
thing, and have wondered how a body of men 
comprising so much ability and excellence could 
have committed such an oversio-ht. 

There is another incident connected with the 
proceedings of the Convention, which partakes of 
the same character, and awakened the regrets of 
several members of the body while yet in session. 
It has been described in so many different ways, and 
is in itself an event of so much interest in our 
early history, that I have taken the pains to ascer- 
tain the facts, and to make a record of them as they 
actually occurred. The occasion is referred to by a 
writer whose spirited and graphic description must 
interest the reader, though some of his statements 
are the result of mistake. He states that he had 
received his information from General Dayton, of 
New Jersey, whom he represents as saying : 

"I was a delegate from New Jersey in the 
General Convention which assembled in Philadel- 
phia, for the purpose of digesting a Constitution 
for the United States, and I believe I was the 



312 Recollections of 

youngest member of that body. The great and 
good Washington was then our President, and Dr. 
Franklin, among other great men, was a delegate 
from Pennsylvania. A disposition was soon dis- 
covered in some members to display themselves in 
oratorical flourishes — but the good sense and 
discretion of the majority put down all such 
attempts. We had convened to deliberate upon, 
and if possible effect, a great national object — to 
search for political wisdom and truth; these we 
meant to pursue with simplicity, and to avoid every 
thing which would have a tendency to divert our 
attention or perplex our scheme. 

" A great variety of projects were proposed — • 
all republican in general outlines, but differing in 
their details. It was therefore determined that 
certain elementary principles should at the first be 
established in each branch of the intended Con- 
stitution, and afterwards the details should be 
debated and filled up. 

" There was little or no difficulty in determin- 
ing upon the elementary principles; such as, for 
instance, that the government should be a repub- 
lican representative government ; that it should be 
divided into three branches, that is, Legislative, 



Persons j^d Events. 313 

Executive, and Judicial, &c. But wlien the organi- 
zation of the Legislative branch came under con- 
sideration, it was easy to be perceived that the 
Eastern and Southern States had distinct interests, 
which it was difficult to reconcile; and that the 
larger States were disposed to form a Constitution 
in which the smaller States would be mere appen- 
dages and satellites to the larger ones. On the 
first of these subjects much animated and some- 
what angry debate had taken place, when the 
ratio of representation in the lower house of 
Congress was before us ; the Southern States claim- 
ing for themselves the whole number of black 
population, while the Eastern States were for 
confining the elective franchise to freemen only, 
without respect to color. 

" As the different parties adhered pertinaciously 
to their different positions, it was feared that this 
would prove an insurmountable obstacle ; but as 
the members were already generally satisfied that 
no Constitution could be formed, which would meet 
the views and subserve the interests of each individ- 
ual State, it was evident that it must be a matter 
of compromise and mutual concession. Under 
these impressions, and with these views, it was 



314 Recollections of 

agreed at lengtli that each State should be entitled 
to one delegate in the House of Representatives for 
every thirty thousand of its inhabitants ; in which 
number should be included three fifths of the 
whole number of their slaves. 

"When the details of the House of Represen- 
tatives were disposed of, a more knotty j)C)int 
presented itself in the organization of the Senate. 
The larger States contended that the same ratio as 
to States should be common to both branches of 
the Legislature ; or, in other words, that each State 
should be entitled to a representation in the 
Senate (whatever might be the number fixed on) 
in proportion to its population, as in the House 
of Representatives. The smaller States, on the 
other hand, contended that the House of Repre- 
sentatives mio;ht be considered as the sruardian of 
the liberties of the people, and therefore ought to 
have a just proportion to their numbers ; but that 
the Senate represented the sovereignty of the 
States, and that as each State, whether great or 
small, was equally an independent and sovereign 
State, it ought in this branch of the Legislature to 
have equal weight and authority. Without this, 
they said, there would be no security for their 



Persons and Events. 315 

rights, and tliey would, by such a distribution of 
power, be merged and lost in the larger States. 

" This reasoning, however plain and powerful, 
had but little influence on the minds of the dele- 
gates from the larger States ; and as they formed a 
large majority of the Convention, the question, 
after passing through the forms of debate, was 
decided that each State should be represented in 
the Senate in proportion to its poj)ulation. 

" When the Convention had adjourned over to 
the next day, the delegates of the four smallest 
States, viz., Rhode Island, Connecticut, New 
Jersey, and Delaware, convened to consult what 
course was to be jDursu^d in the important crisis at 
which we had arrived. After serious investigation, 
it was solemnly determined to ask for a reconsidera- 
tion the next morning ; and if it was not granted, 
or if, when granted, that offensive feature of the 
Constitution could not be expunged, and the 
smaller States put upon an equal footing with the 
largest, we would secede from the Convention ; and, 
returning to our constituents, inform them that no 
compact could be formed with the large States, but 
one which would sacrifice our sovereignty and 
independence. 



316 Recollections of 

" I was deputed to be the organ through which 
this communication should be made ; I know not 
why, unless it be that young men are generally 
chosen to perform rash actions. Accordingly, 
when the Convention had assembled, and as soon as 
the minutes of the last sitting were read, I rose, 
and stated the view we had taken of the organiza- 
tion of the Senate, our desire to obtain a recon- 
sideration and suitable modification of that article, 
and in ftiilure thereof, our determination to secede 
from the Convention, and return to our constit- 
uents. 

"This disclosure, it may readily be supposed, 
produced an immediate and great excitement in 
every part of the house. Several members were 
immediately on the floor, to express their surprise 
or indignation. They represented that the que - 
tion had received a full and fair investigation, 
and had been definitively settled by a very large 
majority; that it was altogether unparliamentary 
and unreasonable for one of the minority to pro- 
pose a reconsideration at the moment their act 
had become a matter of record, and without 
pretending that any new light could be thrown 
Dn the subject ; that if such a precedent should 



Persons and Events. 317 

be established, it would in future be impossible 
to say when any one point was distinctly settled, 
as a small minority might at any moment, again 
and again, move and obtain a reconsideration. 
They therefore hoped the Convention would ex- 
press its decided disapprobation by passing silently 
to the business before them. 

" There was much warm and some acrimonious 
feeling exhibited by a number of the speakers ; 
a rupture appeared almost inevitable, and the 
bosom of Washington seemed to labor with the 
most anxious solicitude for the issue. Happily 
for the United States, the Convention contained 
some individuals possessed of talents and virtues 
of the highest order, whose hearts were deeply 
interested in the establishment of a new and 
efficient form of government, and whose penetra- 
ting minds had already deplored the evils which 
would spring up in our newly-established republic, 
should the present attempt to consolidate it prove 
abortive. Among these personages, the most prom- 
inent was Doctor Franklin. He was esteemed 
the Mentor of our body. To a mind naturally 
strong and capacious, enriched by much reading 
and the experience of many years, he added a 



318 Recollections of 

manner of communicating his thoughts peculiarly 
his own, in which shnplicity, beauty, and strength, 
were equally conspicuous. As soon as the angry 
orators who had preceded him had left an opening, 
the Doctor rose, evidently impressed with the 
weight of the subject before them, and the difficulty 
of managing it successfully. 'We have arrived, 
Mr. President,' said he, ' at a very momentous and 
interesting crisis in our deliberations. Hitherto 
our views have been as harmonious, and our 
progress as great, as could reasonably have been 
expected. But now an unlooked-for and formida- 
ble obstacle is thrown in our way, which threatens 
to arrest our course, and, if not skilfully removed, 
to render all our fond hopes of a Constitution 
abortive. The ground which has been taken by 
the delegates of the four smallest States was as 
unexpected by me, and as repugnant to my 
feelings, as it can be to any other member of this 
Convention. After what I thought a full and 
impartial investigation of the subject, I recorded 
my vote on the affirmative side of the question, and 
I have not yet heard any thing which induces me to 
change my opinion. But I will not conclude it is 
impossible for me to be wrong. I will not say that 



Persons and Events. 319 

those gentlemen who differ from me are under a 
delusion ; much less will I charge them with an 
intention of needlessly embarrassing our delibera- 
tions. It is possible some change in our late pro- 
ceedings ought to take plixce, upon principles of 
political justice ; or that, all things considered, the 
majority may see cause to recede from some of their 
just pretensions, as a matter of prudence and expe- 
dience. For my own part, there is nothing I so much 
dread as a failure to devise and establish some effi- 
cient *and equal form of government for our infant re- 
public. The present effort has been made under the 
happiest auspices, and has promised the most favor- 
able results; but should this effort prove vain, it 
will be long ere another can be made with any 
prospect of success. Our strength and our pros- 
perity will depend on our unity ; and the secession 
of even four of the smallest States, interspersed as 
they are, would, in my mind, paralyze and render 
useless any 23lan which the majority could devise. 
I should therefore be grieved, Mr. President, to see 
matters brought to the test which has been, perhaps 
too rashly, threatened on the one hand, and which 
some of my honored colleagues have treated too 
lightly on the other. I am convinced that it is a 



320 Recollections of 

subject wliicla should be approached with caution, 
treated with tenderness, and decided on with 
candor and liberality. It is, however, to be feared 
that the members of this Convention are not in 
a temper, at this moment, to approach the sub- 
ject on which we differ, in a proper spirit. I 
would therefore propose, Mr. President, that, 
without proceeding further in this business at this 
time, the Convention should adjourn for three 
days, in order to let the present ferment pass 
off, and to afford time for a more full and dis- 
passionate investigation of the subject ; and I would 
earnestly recommend to the members of this 
Convention that they spend the time of this 
recess, not in associating with their own party, 
and devising new arguments to fortify themselves 
in their own opinions, but that they mix with 
members of opposite sentiments, lend a patient 
ear to their reasoning, and candidly allow them 
all the weight to which they may be entitled ; 
and when we assemble again, I hope it will be 
with a determination to form a Constitution — if 
not such an one as we can individually, and in 
all respects, approve, yet the best which, under 
existing circumstances, can be obtained.' Here 



Persons and Events. 321 

tlie countenance of Washington brightened, and a 
cheering ray seemed to break in upon the gloom 
which had recently covered our political horizon. 
The Doctor continued : — ' Before I sit down, 
Mr. President, I will suggest another matter ; and 
I am really surprised that it has not been proposed 
hj some other member at an earlier period of om- 
deliberations. I will suggest, Mr. President, the 
propriety of nominating and appointing, before we 
separate, a chaplain to this Convention, whose duty 
it shall be uniformly to assemble with us, and 
introduce the business of each day by an address 
to the Creator of the Universe, and the Governor 
of all nations, beseeching Him to preside in our 
councils, enlighten our minds with a portion of 
heavenly wisdom, influence our hearts with a love 
of truth and justice, and crown our labors with 
complete and abundant success !' 

" The Doctor sat down ; and never did I behold 
a countenance at once so dignified and delighted as 
was that of Washington, at the close of this 
address. Nor were the members of the Conven- 
tion, generally, less affected. The words of the 
venerable Franklin fell upon our ears with a 

weight and authority even greater than we may 
21 



322 Recollections of 

suppose an oracle to have had in a Roman Senate. 
A silent admiration superseded, for a moment, the 
expression of that assent and approbation which 
was strongly marked on almost every countenance ; I 
say almost — for one man was found in the Conven- 
tion, Mr. , of , who rose and said, with 

regard to the first motion of the honorable gentle- 
man, for an adjournment, he would yield his 
consent ; but he protested against the second 
motion, for the appointment of a chaplain. He 
then commenced a high-strained eulogium on the 
assemblage of wisdom, talent, and experience, which 
the Convention embraced ; declared the high sense 
he entertained of the honor which his constituents 
had conferred upon him, in making him a member 
of that respectable body; said he was confidently 
of opinion that they were competent to transact the 
business which had been intrusted to their care; 
that they were equal to every exigence which might 
occur ; and concluded by saying that, therefore, 
he had not seen the necessity of calling in foreign 
aid. 

"Washington fixed his eyes upon the speaker 
with a mixture of surprise and indignation, while 
he uttered this impertinent and impious speech, and 



Persons and Events. 



oZo 



then looked around to ascertain in what manner it 
affected others. They did not leave Mm -a moment 
to doubt: no one deigned to reply, or take the 
smallest notice of the speaker, but the motion for 
appointing a chaplain was instantly seconded and 
carried ; whether under the silent disapprobation of 

Mr. , or his solitary negative, I do not recollect. 

The motion for an adjournment was then put, and 
carried unanimously ; and the Convention ad- 
journed accordingly. 

" The three days' recess were spent in the manner 
advised by Doctor Franklin : the opposite parties 
mixed with each other, and a free and frank inter- 
change of sentiments took place. On the fourth day 
we assembled again ; and if great additional light 
had not been thrown on the subject, every un- 
friendly feeling had been expelled, and a spirit of 
conciliation had been cultivated which promised at 
least a calm and dispassionate reconsideration of the 
subject. 

" As soon as the Chaplain had closed his prayer, 
and the minutes of the last sitting were read, all 
eyes were turned to the Doctor. He rose, and in a 
few words stated, that during the recess he had 
listened attentively to all the arguments, pro and 



324 Recollections of 

coil; wliich iiud. been urged on botli sides of the 
House ; that lie had himself said much, and thought 
more, on the subject ; he saw difficulties and objec- 
tions which might be urged by individual States 
against every scheme which had been proposed; 
and he was now more than ever convinced that the 
Constitution which they were about to form, in 
order to be just and equal, must be founded on the 
l)asis of compromise and mutual concession. With 
such views and feelings, he would now move a re- 
consideration of the vote last taken on the organiza- 
tion of the Senate. The motion was seconded — the 
vote carried — the former vote rescinded — and, by a 
successive motion and resolution, the Senate was 
organized on the present plan." 

The spirit which pervades this narrative is so 
excellent that we feel reluctant to find fault with it. 
But the writer is under a mistake in some im- 
portant points. The story must have undergone 
a change after it came from General Dayton, for we 
can hardly suppose that he would state the facts in 
a manner different from that in which authentic 
records show them to have actually occurred. 

Mr. Madison was a leading^ member of the Con- 



Persons and Events. 325 

vention, and kept a very minute record of all its 
deliberations and proceedings, which is now pub- 
lished in the " Madison Papers." He describes the 
crisis in the Convention on the subject of represen- 
tation in the Senate, and on other topics, to have 
become alarming, and shows that the impending 
danger of an open rupture was averted by a spirit 
of concession and compromise on both sides of 
various questions. He also notices a proposition 
to adjourn, not for three days, but to the day 
following, and makes particular mention of Dr. 
Franklin's motion for the introduction of religious 
service by a chaplain. But although the Conven- 
tion agreed to adjourn, the motion for inviting a 
chaplain to open the Convention with prayer was 
not carried. In Franklin's works, we have his 
speech on the subject, to which a note is appended 
by himself, stating that his proposition failed ; and 
in the " Madison Papers" we find the history of the 
whole matter to have been as follows : 

The proceedings referred to were on the 28th 
of June ; and on that day the determination of the 
question before the Convention " was put off till 
to-morrow at the request of the Deputies from New 
York," when Dr. Franklin arose and said : 



326 Recollections of 

" ' Mr. President : — The small progress we liave 
made after four or five weeks close attendance and 
continual reasonings with each other, our different 
sentiments on almost every question, several of the 
last producing as many noes as ayes, is, methinks, a 
melancholy proof of the imperfection of the human 
understanding. We, indeed, seem to feel our own 
want of political wisdom, since we have been run- 
ning about in search of it. We have gone back to an- 
cient history for models of government, and examined 
the different forms of those republics which, having 
been formed with the seeds of their own dissolu- 
tion, now no longer exist. And we have viewed 
modern states all round Europe, but find none of 
their constitutions suitable to our circumstances. 

" ' In the situation of this Assembly, groping as 
it were in the dark to find political truth, and 
scarce able to distinguish it when presented to us, 
how has it happened, sir, that we have not hitherto 
once thought of humbly applying to the Father of 
Lights, to illuminate our understanding? In the 
beginning of the contest with Great Britain, when 
we were sensible of danger, we had daily prayer in 
this room, for the Divine protection. Our prayers, 
sir, were heard, and they were graciously answered. 



Persons and Events. 327 

All of us wlio were engaged in the struggle must 
have observed frequent instances of a superintend- 
ing Providence in our favor. To that kind Provi- 
dence we owe this happy opportunity of consulting 
in peace on the means of establishing our future 
national felicity. And have we now forgotten that 
powerful Friend? Or do we imagine that we no 
longer need His assistance ? I have lived, sir, a long 
time, and the longer I live the more convincing 
proofs I see of this truth, that God governs in the 
affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the 
ground without His notice, is it probable that an em- 
pire can rise without His aid ? We have been assured, 
sir, in the Sacred Writings, that " except the Lord 
build the house, they labor in vain that build it." 
I firmly believe this ; and I also believe that, Avith- 
out His concurring aid, we shall succeed in this 
political building no better than the builders of 
Babel. We shall be divided by our little partial 
local interests ; our projects will be confounded ; 
and we ourselves shall become a reproach and a by- 
word down to future ages. And what is worse, man- 
kind may hereafter, from this unfortunate instance, 
despair of establishing governments by human wis- 
dom, and leave it to chance, war, and conquest. 



328 Recollections of 

"*I therefore beg leave to move, that, hence- 
forth, prayers imploring the assistance of Heaven, 
and its blessing on our deliberations, be held in 
this Assembly every morning before we proceed to 
business, and that one or more of the clergy of 
this city be requested to officiate in this service.' 

" Mr. Sherman seconded the motion. 

"Mr. Hamilton, and several others, expressed 
their apprehensions that, however proper such 
a resolution might have been at the beginning of 
the Convention, it might at this late day, in the 
first place, bring on it some disagreeable animad- 
versions ; and in the second, lead the public to 
believe that the embarrassments and dissensions 
within the Convention had suggested this measure. 
It was answered by Dr. Franklin, Mr. Sherman, and 
others, that the past omission of a duty could not 
justify a further omission ; that the rejection of such 
a proposition would expose the Convention to more 
impleasant animadversions than the adoption of it ; 
and that the alarm out of doors that might be 
excited for the state of things within, would at 
least be as likely to do good as ill. 

" Mr. Randolph proposed, in order to give a 
favorable aspect to the measure, that a sermon be 



Persons and Events. 329 

preached, at the request of tlie Convention, on the 
Fourth of July, the anniversary of Independence ; 
and thenceforward prayers, &c., to be read in the 
Convention every morning. After several unsuc- 
cessful attempts for silently postponing this 
matter by adjourning, the adjournment was at 
length carried, without any vote on the motion." 

From this minute account, the accuracy of 
which no one will question, it will be seen that 
although the motion was not carried, it was not 
directly negatived. The Convention disposed of it 
by adjournment. It will also be seen that those 
who opposed the motion did not argue against the 
principle of having the Convention opened by 
prayer. They argued from the inexpediency, as 
they deemed it, of introducing religious services at 
that juncture in the proceedings of their body. I 
regret that they should have taken that view of 
the case. The reply made to their objection, by 
Dr. Franklin and others, ought to have satisfied 
them ; but stilV there was nothing in their opposi- 
tion that can be justly termed scoffing at religion, 
and had the wise proposition been made when the 
Convention first assembled, in all probability it 



830 Recollections of 

would liave passed unanimously. But, notwith- 
standing these extenuating considerations, we must 
deeply regret that the decision in the end was such 
as indirectly to put a negative on Dr. Franklin's 
proposition. 

Seldom has the nation seen so eventful a period 
as when the Convention met for the adoption of the 
Federal Constitution. A tempest had been sweep- 
ing over the country that made the wisest and 
bravest among her patriots fear that the sacrifices 
of the Revolution had been in vain ; and if the 
excellent men to whom were intrusted the des- 
tinies of the nation at this eventful crisis, had not 
too much forgotten to whom they should have 
looked for counsel and direction, if they had com- 
menced and continued their deliberations by a daily 
acknowledgment of their dependence on Him " by 
whom princes decree justice," we might have had 
from their hands a Constitution in which God's 
name ^vould have been honored, and imperfec- 
tions avoided which have since led to painful con- 
flicts. I do not forget that Washington was among 
them, and acting as their President ; but Washington 
was not so wise that he needed no wisdom fron^ above. 
He would have been the last man to say so. It 



Persons and Events. 331 

should be remembered also that the wishes of 
Washington were not always followed by the Con- 
vention, although he was their presiding officer. 
Had he been consulted on the question, I have no 
doubt that he would have avowed his hearty con- 
currence in the proposition of Franklin. Qualify it 
as we may, and regret it as we may, the whole 
transaction, as it stands recorded, furnishes another 
proof that forgetfulness of God has long been 
the besetting sin of the nation, and has resulted in 
that rife spirit of pride and self-exaltation which has 
become a source of alarm, awakening a painful appre- 
hension for the future in the minds of reflecting 
men. They cannot forget that it was when the 
king of Babylon was upon the eve of his humilia- 
tion that he " walked on the palace of the kingdom, 
and said : ' Is not this great Babylon that I have 
built for the house of the kingdom by the might of 
my power and the honor of my majesty?' " They 
cannot avoid seeinof an admonition to our nation in 
the words addressed to Israel : " Beware that thou 
forget not the Lord thy God — lest when thou hast 
eaten and art full, and hast built goodly houses and 
dwelt therein ; and when thy herds and thy flocks 
multiply, and thy silver and thy gold is multiplied, 



332 Recollections of 

and all that thou hast is multiplied ; then thy heart 
be lifted up and thou forget the Lord thy God 
which brought thee forth from the land of Egypt, 
out of the house of bondage, and thou say in thine 
heart, ' My power and the might of my hand hath 
gotten me this wealth.' But thou shalt remember 
the Lord thy God ; for it is He that giveth thee 
power to get wealth, that He may establish the cov- 
enant which He sware unto thy fathers as it is this 
day." 

But, obvious and prevalent as may have been 
this tendency of the public mind to forget the Giver 
of all good in the earlier years of our history as a 
nation, the sin has become still more offensive as we 
have grown in numbers and strength, and especially 
since we have added to our territory the rich and 
vast regions lying on the shores of the Pacific. 
That event, indeed, formed a great era in the history 
of our country, and gave us a power of expansion 
and of growth seldom, if ever, possessed by any other 
nation. It carried us across the continent from sea 
to sea, furnishing us with every variety of valuable 
coast for purposes of commerce. It gave us com- 
mand of a wide extent of territory, including min- 
eral wealth of every description, and a soil yielding 



Persons and Events. 333 

to the husbandman every thing which can add to 
the comfort or health of man. And notwithstand- 
ing this great addition to our boundaries, we 
were so protected by the two great oceans on 
our eastern and western shores as to feel secure 
against war with any foreign Power at all able to 
contend with us. Nothing, indeed, was wanting, 
but that we should be true to ourselves, to render 
us all that the highest ambition of the nation could 
well aspire to reach. 

These advantages were the gifts of Him who 
" hath made of one blood all nations of men for to 
dwell on the face of the earth, and hath determined 
the bounds of their habitation ;" and yet, we forgot 
His hand thus contributing to our greatness, and 
allowed these displays of His goodness to minister 
afresh to a sentiment of pride and self laudation. 

We boasted of our vast territory, binding, as 
we thought, one section of the country to another, 
by that law of supply and demand which renders 
them mutually dependent. We forgot that from 
this diversity of clime and consequent diversity of 
pursuits might arise diversity of tastes, interests, and 
condition, resulting in alienations and collisions 
fatal to the preservation of our Union. We boasted 



334 Recollections of 

of our safety from war by our distance from other 
nations. We forgot how soon the worst of all wars 
might arise within ourselves, civil war, deluging 
the land with the blood of brother shed by the 
hand of brother. We were proud of our name, 
" The United States of America," and of a union 
secured, as we thought, by a Constitution so wisely 
framed that it promoted the welfare of each by a 
union of all. We forgot how soon that Constitu- 
tion might be violated by the jealousies of the States 
that formed it, and the country become distracted 
and divided against itself. 

The man is blind indeed, who does not see in 
the present calamities which have overtaken the 
nation, a punishment for our sin, and that sin so 
plainly written in our suffering that " he who runs 
may read" it. But while under this chastisement 
we should be penitent and humble, we see a 
pledge of Divine favor in that we have not been 
allowed to grow old in our iniquity, before we 
were overtaken 1:)y the rod of correction. It is 
equally true of nations and of individuals, that 
early chastisement is a proof of mercy in store for 
them ; while destruction awaits those who are 
allowed to go on unchecked, until they become 



Persons and Events. 335 

hardened and insensible in tlieir guilt. As a 
nation, we are yet in our youth. Our chastisement, 
though severe, has come at a time when we should 
" bear the rod, and Him who hath appointed it ;" 
accepting it with humility, more anxious to see it 
sanctified than to have it removed. 

It is not my place to inquire into the question 
of State Rights, or how far State authority is made 
subordinate to the authority of the nation by our 
Constitution. But whenever the question presents 
itself, I love to turn to the sentiments of Wash- 
ington and other sages of the country, when 
treating of the subject. Almost immediately after 
the conclusion of the Revolutionary War, the old 
Confederation was seen to have defects which must 
be remedied if the life of the nation was to be pre- 
served. The great defect was, as all admitted, a 
want of power in the national arm to enforce its 
own authority. The necessity of a Convention to 
prepare a Federal Constitution to meet the exigen- 
cies of the case, was the subject of discussion and 
correspondence among the leading men of the day ; 
and perhaps no one gave a more full expression of 
his views on the whole subject than General Wash- 



336 Recollections of 

ington. His mind was filled with alarm, when he 
saw the resistance that was made in various 
quarters against the authority of the General Gov- 
ernment; and he describes, in very plain terms, 
what he thought indispensable to the stability and 
perpetuity of the Republic he had done so much 
to establish. 

" To me," he says, in a letter to James Warren^ 
" it is a solecism in politics, indeed it is one of the 
most extraordinary things in nature, that we should 
confederate as a nation, and yet be afraid to give 
the rulers of that nation power to direct and order 
the affairs of the same. By such policy as this the 
wheels of government are clogged, and our bright- 
est prospects, and that high expectation which was 
entertained of us by the wondering world, are 
turned into astonishment ; and from the high ground 
on which we stood, we are descendins: into the vale 
of confusion and darkness." 

And again : " I have ever been a friend to ade- 
quate powers in Congress, without which it is 
evident to me we never shall establish a national 
character, or be considered as on a respectable footing 
by the powers of Europe. We are either a united 
people under one head, and for federal purposes. 



Persons and Events. 337 

or we are thirteen independent sovereignties, eter- 
nally counteracting eacli other. If tlie former, 
whatever the majority of the States, as the Consti- 
tution points out, conceives to be for the benefit of 
the whole, should, in my humble opinion, be sub- 
mitted to by the minority. I can foresee no evil 
greater than disunion, than these unreasonable 
jealousies, which are continually poisoning our 
minds, and filling them with imaginary evils for 
the j)revention of real ones." 

In reply to a letter from John Jay, he writes : 
" We have probably had too good an opinion of 
human nature in forming our confederation. We 
have errors to correct. Experience has taught us 
that men will not adopt and carry into execution 
measures the best calculated for their own good, 
without the intervention of coercive power. I do 
not conceive we can exist long as a nation without 
lodging somewhere a power which will pervade the 
whole Union in as energetic a manner as the au- 
thority of the State governments extends over the 
several States." 

Discontents, amounting to insurrection, had 
broken out in Massachusetts, and in reply to Colo- 
nel Lee, who had written letters to him on that 
22 



338 Recollections of 

subject, he writes : " You talk, my good sir, of era- 
ploying influence to appease tlie tumults in Massa- 
cliusetts. I know not where that influence is to be 
found, or, if attainable, that it would be a proper 
remedy for the disorders. Influence is not govern- 
ment. Let us have a government by which our 
lives, liberties, and properties will be secured, or 
let us know the worst at once. There is a call for 
decision. Know precisely what the insurgents aim 
at. If they have real grievances, redress them, if 
possible ; or acknowledge the justice of them, and 
your inability to do it at the moment. If they 
have not, employ the force of government against 
them at once. If this is inadequate, all will be 
convinced that the superstructure is bad, and wants 
support. To delay one or other of these expedients, 
is to exasperate <^n the one hand, or to give confi- 
dence on the other. Let the reins of government, 
then, be braced and held with a steady hand, and 
every violation of the Constitution be reprehended. 
If defective, let it be amended, but not suffered to 
])e trampled upon whilst it has an existence." 

And, once more, to James Madison he writes : 
" How melancholy is the reflection, that in so short 
a time we should have made such large strides 



Persons and Events. 339 

towards fulfilling tlie predictions of our transatlan- 
tic foes : ' Leave them to themselves, and their gov- 
ernment will soon dissolve.' Will not the wise and 
good strive hard to avert this evil ? Or will their 
supineness suffer ignorance and the arts of self 
interested and designing, disaffected and desperate 
characters to involve this great country in wretch- 
edness and contempt? What stronger evidence 
can be given of the want of energy in our govern- 
ment than these disorders ? If there is not power 
in it to check them, what security has a man for 
life, liberty, or jjroperty ? To you I am sure I need 
not add aught on the subject. The consequences 
of a lax or inefficient government are too obvious 
to be dwelt upon. Thirteen sovereignties pulling 
against each other, and all tugging at the Federal 
head, will soon bring ruin on the whole ; whereas a 
liberal and energetic Constitution, well checked and 
well watched, to prevent encroachments, might 
restore us to that degree of respectability and con- 
sequence to which we had the fairest prospect of 
attaining." 

No one can contemplate these anxious forebodings 
of Washlno-ton as to the evils then threatenino^ the 



340 Recollections of 

country, and the great need of a Constitution by 
whicli tliey might be remedied or prevented, without 
learnino" what were his views as to State Rights, 
and how they should be limited and controlled by 
the National authority. He had no doul^ts as to 
the right or expediency of "coercing a State" into 
submission when it became refractory or rebellious, 
and of doing it promptly and effectually. He was 
more apprehensive of resistance from the States 
af'-ainst the nation than of any wrong done to the 
States by the nation. He was evidently more afraid 
of disintegration from within than of invasion from 
without, and was more anxious to see a bond 
created that would prevent the nation from ftilling 
into fragments by dissensions among the States 
themselves, than to encompass the land with ram- 
parts that might bid defiance to the whole world. 
That great desire of his heart he thought was 
accomplished when the Constitution, as prepared by 
the Convention, was adopted by the requisite num- 
ber of States. His views are expressed in a letter to 
his friend J. Trumbull, in ^vhich we see exemplified 
his solemn recognition of Divine Providence, and his 
strong hope of future tranquillity and happiness for 
the country. " We may," said he, " with a kind of 



Persons and Events. 341 

pious and grateful exultation, trace the finger of 
Providence tlirougli those dark and mysterious 
events which first induced the States to appoint a 
general Convention, and then led them, one after 
another, by such steps as were best calculated to 
effect the object, into an adoption of the system 
recommended by the general Convention ; thereby, 
in all human probability, laying a lasting founda- 
tion for tranquillity and happiness, ^vhen we had 
but too much reason to fear that confusion and 
misery were coming rapidly upon us." How well 
would it have been for us all, if those who loved to 
speak of Washington as " first in war, first in peace, 
and first in the hearts of his countrymen," had 
learned to respect his well-matured judgment, and 
to embrace his sound political views. I have some- 
times thought that if the ashes of the dead can ever 
be disturbed by events transpiring around them on 
earth, how restless must be the tomb of the venera- 
ble man, in view of the melancholy scenes of vio- 
lence and blood that have recently been enacted 
even within sight of Mount Vernon. No one ought 
to doubt what part he would have taken in the 
present collision, and how stern would have been 
his rebuke to the misguided or corrupt men who 



342 Recollections of 

would blot out from our flag tlie still illustrious 
motto " The United States of America." Nor can 
I doubt that in answer to his prayers, and the 
prayers of those who shared with him in his noble 
patriotism, the Union is again to be restored, how- 
ever costly may be the sacrifices through which the 
happy consummation is to be reached. The war 
has become a contest between great resources on 
the one hand, and great resolution on the other. 
How long the strife may be protracted we cannot 
foresee. But let the abundant strength of the 
North in men and means be promptly called into 
action and wisely directed, and it would seem the 
final result cannot be far distant. 

When viewing the calamities of our present civil 
war, and the causes which have led to it, I love to 
relieve, if not refresh my mind, by reverting to the 
views held by the fathers of our Repuljlic, as ex- 
pressed in the above extracts from the letters of 
Washington. Others besides myself, I presume, 
must be gratified to contemplate the hearty expres- 
sion of these conservative sentiments from one so 
capable of judging as to what is essential in a 
Federal Union, that shall either preserve the life 



Persons and Events. 343 

of the Commonwealth, or give it strength and emi- 
nence among -the nations of the earth. I enter no 
further into the political discussion of the great 
question of our day than simply to record the 
deliberate vievrs of a man whom all delight to 
honor. 

But there are moral considerations connected 
with the present aspect of affairs which should be 
carefully weighed. The peace of the nation must 
always be liable to frequent disturbance if they 
are neglected. 

It should never be forgotten that the continuance 
of peaceful government in our country depends 
greatly, if not mainly, on the good will of the peo- 
ple towards each other. The national compact was 
founded on principles of concession and compromise, 
and can be preserved in harmony only by a spirit 
of mutual forbearance. In this spirit did the lead- 
ins: men of the Convention frame our Constitution. 
Washington himself tells us, " Nor am I such an 
enthusiastic patriot, or indiscriminating admirer of 
it, as not to perceive that it is tinctured with some 
real though not radical defects." It was the best 
thing that could be done at the time, in which, as 



344 Recollections of 

lie said, one part of tlie country yielded " to the 
circumstances and prejudices" of others. When 
Dr. Franklin arose to move that the Constitution as 
adopted should be signed by the members, he said : 
" I confess that there are several parts of it which I 
do not at present approve, but I am not sure I shall 
' never approve them. The oj)inions I have had of 
its errors I sacrifice to the public good." And it is 
only by this spirit of conciliation and self-denial 
that the future peace of the country can be pre- 
served. We must learn to treat with respect and 
kindness, not only the rights and privileges, but 
the feelings, sympathies, and even prejudices of each 
other. 

There has been a lamentable want of this senti- 
ment in the public mind for years past, especially 
in our halls of legislation ; and on subjects of na- 
tional interest there has been a temper of harsh and 
fierce proscription on one side, and ostentatious 
arrogance on the other, that have created sad fore- 
bodino;s of evil to come, anrl have asrorravated the 
evil after it came. When I have sometimes listened 
to public debates, I have been reminded of the 
words, " whose tongue is a sharp sword," for it 
often cuts asunder the strongest and most sacred 



Persons and Events. 345 

ties that can bind man to man or State to State, 
Bitter words lead to blows, and blows that often 
end in blood. 

This spirit must be checked and changed if we 
are ever to have a country truly and permanently 
united. If we had peace to-morrow between North 
and South — were both past and present causes of 
division and irritation finally settled — there are other 
questions to arise that will again lead to strife, if 
not bloodshed, unless they are met with feelings of 
mutual good- will and concession. In a territory so 
vast as ours, and with inhabitants pursuing occu- 
pations and having interests so diverse, perhaps 
conflicting, causes of dissent must be constantly de- 
veloping themselves. Were we under a despotism, 
no political convulsions might be expected to arise 
from such sources; for in such a government the 
will of one man must be the will of all. But in a 
republic it is not so. Here the people are the 
sovereigns, and the sovereignty belongs as much to 
one section of the country as to another; and on 
questions aifecting public welfare, they must give 
as well as take; they must yield as well as require. 
In other words, the spirit of Christianity must be the 
spirit of a republic, if it would enjoy peace as well 



346 Recollections of 

as prosperity. "Put on, therefore," says Paul, 
"kinduess, humbleness of mind, meekness, long- 
suifering, forbearing one another, and forgiving one 
another, if any man have a quarrel against any. 
Even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye. And 
above all these things, put on charity, which is the 
bond of perfectness." I believe it is becoming more 
and more the opinion of reflecting men, that a 
government embodying such universal freedom and 
equality as ours cannot subsist long, unless the 
masses of the people become leavened with the 
great j)rinciples of true religion. The really con- 
servative party, if party it must be called, is com- 
posed of those throughout the land who have the 
spirit and bear the name of sincere Christians ; and 
our l:)est hoj^e for the future lies in that strong hold 
which religion has upon the conscience of our na- 
tion. It is bounded by no geographical limits — it 
is found north and south, east and west ; and I have 
no doubt that when the reunion, now hoped for 
and prayed for, shall be effected, the most active 
and leading friends of the measure will be found 
among those who are governed by the great princi- 
ples of the Christian faith. 

In the next place, though we have no established 



Persons and Events. 347 

churcli in our country- — Churcli and State being en- 
tirely distinct from each other, politically speaking 
— there is no nation in which civil affairs are more 
influenced by the prevailing sentiment of the Chris- 
tian community. We have no test oaths as a quali- 
fication for office, nor do we need them ; but let a 
man become a reviler of religion, and he will soon 
find that he has established a test against himself. 
There is a public sentiment, created by a wide- 
spread regard for the great truths of revelation, that 
will not brook a scoffer or tolerate him as a civil 
ruler. There may have been exceptions to this, but 
the feeling itself is becoming stronger and stronger. 
But while we should rejoice to see the growing 
prevalence of this sentiment, it lays on the Chris- 
tian community a heavy responsibility as to the 
civil welfare of the nation. When the memorable 
secession of the Methodist churches in the slave 
States occurred, in 1844, Mr. Calhoun is said to have 
remarked, " that is the most efficient step yet taken 
to divide the South from the North." He was 
right. He knew the numbers and strength of the 
Methodist denomination in the South, and when he 
saw them openly withdrawing from the North, and 
fonning an independent ecclesiastical organization, 



348 Recollections of 

lie saw plainly, how it would promote the purpose 
of those who were laying their plans for a Southern 
civil Confederacy. There is no country in which 
ecclesiastical disruption, especially if marked hj 
geographical lines, can do more to affect public 
tranquillity than in the United States. And if the 
cause of secession in the South has been aided by 
corresponding action taken too promptly by the 
higher courts of different religious denominations, 
let us hope they will lead the way in healing the 
breach and restoring the Union, which was so long 
a blessing to both Church and State. 

And once more : the earliest fitting opportunity 
should be embraced to embody in our Constitution 
a solemn and express acknowledgment of the Most 
High God as " Governor among the nations." In 
the strong language of a strong man, " Let the taint 
of Atheism be removed from that all-important 
document." It cannot be said that such an enact- 
ment would be inconsistent with the gi'eat princi- 
ple of religious freedom, which is so interwoven 
with all our institutions, lioth in Church and in 
State. Nor can any man complain of it as a viola- 
tion of his conscience. In all communities there are 
men of extreme and morbid antipathies to every 



Persons and Events. 349 

thing sacred. But we do not think of abolishing 
the use of the oath in our courts of justice, or the 
observance of a vv^eekly day of rest, in order to 
please them. Such men must be allowed to stand 
by themselves. Fortunately for public welfare, 
they form a small minority. The man who denies 
the being of a God and His government over the 
affairs of men, should be viewed as among the 
worst of this class. He is morally insane. We are 
told, " the fool hath said in his heart, There is no 
God ;" and none but the fool, or he that is void of 
understanding, would say it ; and even he says it 
only " in his heart" — rather wishes it to be so 
than believes that it is so. Laws and enactments 
are not made to correspond with the wishes of such 
men, but mth the sober judgment of those who 
compose the strength and majority of the people. 

There can be no difficulty in framing an article 
in which all would gladly unite, who acknowledge 
the just and supreme authority of the Most High 
God. The doubts and apprehensions entertained 
by some good men, as to the proj)osed alteration, 
seem to arise from a misapprehension of what is 
contemplated by at least a majority of those who 
advocate it. There is no thought of iucor23orating 



350 Recollections of 

in it any thing wMcli would toucli on points now 
dividing one religious denomination from another. 
Nor do I believe there would be in the end much 
diversity of opinion on the question, if it is kept 
before the public mind in calm and conscientious 
discussion, and is made a subject of prayer that 
God would give us, as a nation, wisdom and 
direction to act, in all things, as will best honor 
His name and promote the public welfare. 

Should such a spirit pervade and animate the 
American people, it would be the best pledge of a 
future before us more glorious than we have ever 
yet seen. There would be every thing to encourage 
us. We can find fresh ground for hope of coming 
prosperity and greatness, both in the land given to 
us as our heritage and in the character of its in- 
habitants. Besides a fruitful soil, yielding every 
variety of remuneration to the hand of the indus- 
trious husbandman, exhaustless mines of mineral 
wealth are daily discovered in regions heretofore 
considered as irredeemable wastes, doomed to per- 
petual barrenness. The proverb of the ancients, 
" He shall dip his foot in oil," denoting the greatest 
abundance of riches, we see literally fulfilled at our 



Persons and Events. 351 

doors. And if the words of the patriarcli, " Thy 
shoes shall be iron and brass," express strength, 
brightened and displayed by collision encountered 
in the way, do we not see the prediction accom- 
plished, in the brilliant and enduring qualities of 
our people, cultivated and brought to light in our 
present national struggle? The severe discipline 
through which we are now passing, is developing 
features of public spirit which few among us were 
inclined to expect. We have examples of high 
patriotism, not simply here and there among a select 
few of elevated rank, but pervading the masses of 
our people, that would have done honor to the best 
citizens of Rome in her most palmy days. A sor- 
rowing father, as he bowed over the wasted form of 
his son, in one of our military hospitals, was asked 
by the attending surgeon, " Is this your only son ?" 
and the reply was, " No sir ; I have had three sons. 
One has already offered up his life for his country ; 
and if this should be taken from me, I have still 
another, whom I will send in his place." Noble 
and elevated as the sentiment was, we have thou- 
sands of fathers who would repeat it under the same 
circumstances; and thus we have such armies of 
volunteers as are unknown in the historv of na- 



352 Recollections of 

tions — ranks filled with men who have left home 
and all the comforts of a haj3py home behind them, 
to encounter the dangers and privations of bloody 
war, actuated by the high motive to preserve the 
life of the nation in this day of her fiery trial. If 
we should ever forget such men and their services, 
we should little deserve the peace and prosperity 
for which we are looking, and must one day suffer 
rebuke for our ingratitude. 

Nor is it only among those who are bearing arms 
in our behalf that this spirit of patriotism is 
exemplified. There is abroad throughout the land 
a feeling of large benevolence, of active sympathy 
with those who are perilling their lives in its de- 
fence, which has reached the highest as well as the 
lowest of our citizens. The rich give of their abun- 
dance, and even the widow is ready with her mite. 
Especially is this elevated, true-hearted generosity 
displayed among the women of our country, and 
thus it becomes more than ever a sign of our times 
full of promise ; for let our women minister at this 
altar, and relieve suftering as they only can relieve 
it, and they will carry with them to the firesides 
and nurseries of the nation a spirit that will train 
future generations for a devotion to the public good, 



Persons and Events. 353 

iu which they may perhaps excel the deeds of their 
fathers. 

To all this affluence of physical resources, and to 
this high spirit of patriotism and wide-spread 
benevolence, let us add a due acknowledgment of 
" the Father of lights, from whom cometh down 
every good and perfect gift," and who can fitly de- 
scribe the bright destiny that awaits the nation ? 

God save the Republic ! I do not utter it as a 
thoughtless exclamation, but as a sincere and solemn 
prayer to Him who " maketh wars to cease unto the 
end of the earth," that He would rescue our beloved 
country from the conflict through which she is now 
made to pass; that he would change the hearts 
of our enemies, and restore to them and to us a 
Union, which produced in former years such abun- 
dance of blessings to their ancestors and ours. 

" Our fathers — where are they ?" Is not their 

spirit to be found yet surviving among those who 

are now in array against us ? — Kutledge, Marion, 

Laurens, Pinckney, Madison, Jefferson, Franklin, 

Clinton, Schuyler, Hamilton, Adams, • and, above 

all, Washington, are illustrious names, belonging as 

much to one section of the country as another. 
23 



354 Recollections. 

They are the common heritage of the whole United 
States. Why should parricidal hands arise to 
tarnish the fair fame of the men who labored to 
establish a government that has long been the 
admii'ation of other nations, and to which thou- 
sands and thousands are still flying as an asylum 
from oppression 1 

Here it has been my privilege to have my home 
during my whole life, and here my last ashes are 
to rest in hope of a blessed resurrection. Let me 
still cherish the belief that before my " appointed 
time" shall come, I shall be permitted to see the 
Stars and Stripes again waving over the entire land, 
united in feeling, in interests, as well as in name. 



INDEX. 



A. 

Abeel, Rev. Dr., sketch of his character, pp. . . 19, 20 

Adams, John Quincy, his death, p 11'? 

his undeviating integrity . . 118 
refusal to employ the power of 
office to reward political par- 
tisans, p. . . , . 118 
respect for the Christian Sab- 
bath, p 120 

his affectionate regard for the 

mfemory of his mother, p. . 122 

his social character, p. . . 122 

meeting with Albert Gallatin and 

others, p 123 

his views of a mother's influence 
in forming the characters of 
distinguished men, p. . . 123 

Address of Rev. Dr. Milnor at inauguration of Professors 

of New York University, pp. . . . 208-214 
of Chancellor on same occasion, pp. . . . 215—229 
of Convention on behalf of American Bible 

Society, pp 134-144 

response of the country to, pp. . . . 144 

A.FKICA must be Christianized mainly by Africans — how 

the work can be aided from America, pp. . . 171, 172 



356 Index. 

Alexander, Rev. Dr., his views on the want of churches 

in our city, pp. ... 281, 282 

American Bible Society formed by a Convention in 

1815, p 134 

American Board of Commissioners for Foreign 

Missions formed in 1810, p. . . 158 

American Revolution, leading actors in, who have now 

disappeared, pp. . . . 266, 266 
Anglo-Saxon Race compared with other races as to its 
physical qualities and its remarkable 
increase and spread, pp. . . 162-154 



B. 

Battery, the, how changed, p. . . . . . 261 

Bible, the, cumulative evidence of its truth, pp. . . 83, 84 
first book issued from a printing-press, p. . . 147 

Bibles, multiplication of since the formation of Bible 

Societies, p. . . . ' . . . . . 146 

Bible Societies, era of, p. . . . . . . 13] 

incident relating to the formation of 
the British and Foreign Bible So- 
ciety, p. . . . . . 132 

imaginary objections against the for- 
mation of a National Bible Society 
in this country, p. ... 133 

incidental benefits from societies for 
circulating the Scriptures without 
note or comment, as new proof of 
self-evidencing power of God's 
Word ; influence in uniting Chris- 
tians of diflerent denominations, pp. 144-256 
Bissett, Rev. Dr., anecdote of, p. . . . . 57 



I 



Index. 357 

BoLiNGBuoKE, Lord, anecdote of, p. . . . . 79 

BouDiNOT, Hon. E., his exertions and influence in 

forming the American Bible Society, p. . 133 

Burr, Aaron, results of his duel with Gen. Hamilton, p. 86 
interest felt on his behalf as the son of 

Christian parents, p. . . . . 87 

requested to visit him, p. . . . 88 

his courteous manner; his colloquial 

powers, p. .... . 88 

surprise at the sympathy entertained on 

his account, p. .... . 90 

freedom of our interview, p. . . . 92 

avows his faith in the truth of the Bible, p. 92 

emotion when reminded of his mother, p. 93 
increased agitation when reminded of his 

daughter, p. • . . . . 94 

views of his exclusion from his former 

associations, pp. .... 96, 98 

his despondency, p. , . . . 90 

his request when we parted, p. • . 100 

his death, p. ..... 101 

impressive lesson taught by the reverses 

of his life, p 102 



€. 

Calvin's Institutes, Bolingbroke's opinion of, p. . 78 

Chancellorship of New York University, when elected 
to ; perplexities on the question of ac- 
ceptance, pp. ..... 204, 205 

Charter of University obtained, p. . . . . 204 

Chinese, their residence in this country a means of 

Christianizing their own, pp. . . . 172-175 

Church, Dr., anecdote of, p. . . . . . 77 

Churches of New York, changes in their location, p. 2(36 



358 Index. 

Churches of New Yokk, removal from lower part of 

the city, pp. . . . 266-269 
this practice carried too 

far, p 211 

evils to be apprehended from 

it, p 272 

reasons which may justify 
the removal of a church, 

pp 273,274 

always to be done cau- 
tiously, p. . . . 2 7 4 
duty of Christians in this city 
in reference to the reli- 
gious destitution in the 
lower wards, pp. . . 274, 275 
number of churches in the 
whole city ; inadequacy to 
meet the wants of the 
population, pp. . , 266, 267 
the evil constantly increas- 
ing, pp 277, 279 

Cities, influence of, on the religious condition of a 

country, p. . . . . . . . 282 

regard had to this in the first spread of the 

Gospel by the Apostles, p. . . . . 288 

increased importance of this consideration from 
the growing numerical strength of cities at 
the present day, pp. ..... 270-291 

Clay, Henry, fond recollections of his mother, p. 
Clergy of New York in 1810, pp. . 

Clinton, De Witt, sketch of, p 

his ancestry, p. . . . 
credit due to him for the Erie 

Canal, p 69 



124 

17-29 

68 



/' 



Index. 359 

Clinton, Db Witt, his opinion of Calvin as a reformer; 
of President Edwards as a logi- 
cian ; of the clergy generally, as 
an intellectual class, pp. . . 78,70 
his opinion of divines in England and 

America, p. . . • • 80 

College life, danger to young men, pp. • • • 30-37 
College officers, their responsibility respecting the 

habits of their students, p. . • 38 

Confederation, pld, its great defects, p. . • • 335 

Convention which adopted the Constitution ; serious 
collisions of opinion on the subject of 
how the United States Senate should be 
organized, pp. .... 
Dr. Franklin's influence in, p. . 
mistaken account of their action in refer- 
ence to daily prayers, pp. 
a true statement of what occurred, p. 
Conversion of the heathen a duty not properly 

appreciated by our 
churches in the early 
part of the present 
century, pp. . , 160, 161 
to be mainly effected 

by native laborers, p. 179 

Country, our own, encouraging prospects of, pp. . . 350-353 
Crisis of the country when the Constitution was 

adopted, p ^^^ 

D. 

Dangers to public men from accumulated labors, pp. . 256-258 
Denominations, religious, comparative growth of, in New 

York during last fifty years, pp. . . 280, 281 



311-317 
317 

321-323 
325 



360 Index. 



E. 



Electricity to be made further subservient to the use 

of man, p. ...... 247 

Emmet, Thomas A., his eloquent defence of Fulton and 

his rights, pp. .... 49-52 

English language, its remarkable spread ; displacing 

other languages, pp. . . . 154, 155 

influence of those speaking it on 
the future destinies of the world, 
pp. ...... 155, 156 

English translation of the Scriptures, its acknowl- 
edged excellence, p. , . . 150 
its influence on modern transla- 
tions into foreign languages, p. . 150 
Erie canal, influence of De Witt Clinton in carrying 

out the project, p. . . . . 69 

Evangelical Christianity generally embraced by ed- 
ucated men when they 
abandon infidelity ; causes 
of, pp. . . . . 76, 77 

F. 

Federal Constitution, its origin, and the reasons which 

called for it, pp. . . . 335, 336 
Female Society, its happy influence on young men 

when rightly directed, pp. . . 39, 40 
Foreign Missions, former apathy of the churches re- 
specting, p. . . . . 158 
enlarged scale on which they are 
now conducted by our churches, 
pp 163, 164 



Index. 361 

« 

FoREiGX MISSIONS, peculiar responsibilities of Araerican 
churches in relation to, arising out 
of our geogfaphical position, pp. 164-166 
hopes of Edwards, Davies, and 

others respecting, p. . . . 176 

FoRGETFULNESS OF GoD a besetting sin of our nation, pp, 331-333 
Franklin, his speech on the subject of daily prayers in 

the Federal Convention, p. . . . 327 

his opinion of defects in the Constitution, p. 342 

Fulton, Robert, his habits in social life, p. . . . 49 

slow progress of his first boat on her 

voyage to Albany, pp. . . . 43, 44 

little confidence of the public in his 

success, p. .... . 44 

incident showing his own anxiety in his 
first experiments in steam naviga- 
tion, pp. ..... 44-47 

an example of the injustice generally 

done to projectors and inventors, pp. 47-49 

G. 

GrALLATiN, Hon. Albert, skctch of, p. . . . . 251 

God, duty of acknowledging His existence and authority 

in our Constitution, pp. ..... 349, 340 

Good-will of the people towards each other essential 

to peaceful government in our country, p. . 343 

Great men in our day, p. ..... . 67 

H. 

Hall. Rev. Dr., anecdote respecting, pp. . . . 24. 26 
Hamilton, General Alexander, icterview with Rev. Dr. 

Rodgers, p. ..... . 310 



362 Index. 

HoBART, Bishop, sketch of his character, pp. . . 20,21 

Hooker, his opinion of Calvin, p. .... 81 

Hudson River the cradle of steam navigation, p. . . 41 



I. 

Immigration does not endanger our institutions if we 
are faithful to our duty ; furnishes in- 
creased facilities for the spread of reli- 
gion, pp. ...... 166-169 

Indians, little done for their conversion in the early part 

of the present century, p. . • • • 150 



J. 

Jefferson, Thomas, his refusal to bestow appaintments 

to ofBce as the reward of party services, p. 119 



K. 

Kent, Hon. James, his reputation as a jurist, pp. . . 70, 76 



li. 

Lewis Morgan, Chief Justice, sketch of, p. . . . 252 

Literary Convention, meeting of in New York; called 
to consider the plan and object 
contemplated by the Univer- 
sity, p. .... 194 
address to the Convention, p. . 195 
value of its deliberations, p. . 204 



Index. 363 

Livingston, Rev. Dr., sketch of his character, pp. . 17, 19 

Luke, why called the beloved physician, p. . . . 181 



Mason, Rev. Dr. J. M,, sketch of his character, pp. . 25-29 
his occasional depression of 
spirits ; sensitiveness to kind- 
ness or unkindness from those 
around him, pp. . . . 54, 55 
an evening with him, p. . . 55 

anecdotes he related respecting 
Gouverneur Morris, Bisljte 
Moore, Dr. Livingston, Dr. 
Bissett, Dr. Witherspoon, Dr. 
Franklin, Mr. Whitfield, pp. . 5G-61 
comparison of Mason with 
Whitfield ; chief point of dif- 
ference between the two as 
preachers, pp. . . . 61-63 
his talents as an expositor, p. . 63 

Maternal influence on the minds of children, pp. . 129, 130 
Meade, Bishop, his description of the melancholy state 

of religion from 1805 to 1812, p. ... 158 

Medical profession, instrumentality of, in the spread 

of the Gospel, p. . . . 178 

gifts of healing bestowed by our 

Lord, their significance, p. . 179 
and influence, p. . . . 180 
Medical students, peculiar dangers to their moral wel- 
fare, p 184 

duties of Christians respecting 

them, p. . . . • . 186 



364 Index. 

Miller, Rev. Dr., sketch of his character, pp. . . 21,22 
MiLNOR, Rev. Dr., sketch of his character, p. . . 253 

Missionaries, Foreign, should be specially educated for 

their work, pp. . . . 176, 177 

often victims to the necessity of 
undertaking labors beyond 
their strength, pp. . . 181-183 
duty of giving them relief, p. . 184 

Moore, Benjamin, Right Rev., sketch of his char- 
acter, p. .... . 20 

anecdote of, p. . . . 56 

Morris, Gouverneur, anecdote of, p. . . . . 56 

Morrison, Rev. Dr., his instrumentality in awakening a 
^al for foreign missions in our country when 
on his way to China ; his services in transla- 
ting the Scriptures into the Chinese lan- 
guage, pp. ...... 161-163 

Morse, Professor, his success in the invention of the 

telegraph, and his well-merited reward, pp. , 52-53 
McLeod, Rev. Dr., sketch of his character, pp. . . 24-28 
McMurray, Rev. Dr., sketch of his character, p. . . 263 



Napoleon, happy influence of the Empress Josephine 

upon him, p. ..... . 40 

New York, her peculiar responsibilities as to the reli- 
gious welfare of our country, p. . - 292 
dangers to ourselves from our position as a 

commercial metropolis, p. . . . 294 

advantages for the site of a Univer- 
sity, pp 248-251 



Index. 366 



P. 



Parks of New York, changes in the, pp. . . . 260, 261 
Patriotism, as developed in our present national strug- 
gle, pp 351,352 

Physician, the attainments and qualifications desirable 

for, pp. . . . .- . . . 166-158 
Population of New York compared with that of other 

cities, pp 259, 260 

Prayers, daily, proposed in Federal Convention, p. . 320 

Printing, art of, improvement in,' as auxiliary to the 

spread of the Bible, pp 148,149 

Public buildings, changes in, p, . . . . 262 



Religion, declension of, after the days of Edwards and 

Whitfield, p 157 

change in the sentiments of the educated 

classes respecting it, pp. . . . . Yl, 72 

causes of the change, p. . . . . 7 

improved education of the clergy, p. . . 73 

auspicious influence of free intercourse be- 
tween the clergy and men of other pro- 
fessions, pp. ...... 74, 75 

infidelity unmasking itself, p. . . . 76 

Religious sentiment of the country ; its influence on 

civil affairs, pp 346-348 

Representative Government, principles ' of, developed 

in the Hebrew Commonwealth, p. . 82 

Resignation of Chancellorship, letter to the Council 

tendering it, p. . 235 

action of the Council 

on the same, pp. . 239-241 



366 Index. 

Responsibilities of merchants and other employers in 
cities on behalf of yonng men in their 

employ, pp 113,114 

RoDGEES, Rev. Dr., remarks upon the Constitution, pp. 310, 311 

Roman tribute to a mother's influence, p. . . . 125 

Rutgers, Col. Henry, his death at an advanced age, p. 103 

devoted patriotism, p. . . 104 

his liberality to all objects of 

benevolence, p. . . . 104 

impressive instance of his wis- 
dom in the bestowment of his 
charities, pp. . . . 105-111 

his kind response to Dr. J. H. 

Rice, p. . . . . 114 

S. 

Scriptural illustrations of a mother's influence upon 

, her sons, pp. . . . 126-128 

Streets of New York, changes in, p. . . . 262 

Sunday-schoole, their happy influence, and claims on 

our co-operation, p. . . . . 298 

T. 

Tallmadge, General James, sketch of, p. . . . 252 

u. 

University of the City of New York, considerations 

which led to the establishment of, pp. 189-191 
first meeting held on the subject, p. . . ] 92 

founders of; their comprehensive designs 

in creating it, p. . ... . . 242 



Index. 367 

University of the City of New Yokk, adaptation of 
its design to the wants of the nation 
and of the age, pp. . . • • 243-247 

importance of New York as the site of 

such an institution, pp. . . .248-251 

oflBccrs of Council and Chancellor 

chosen, p. . . • • • • 21)4 

professors inaugurated and institution 

opened for reception of pupils, pp. . 207-229 

building erected, p. .... 230 

additional professors and increased num- 
ber of students, pp. . . . .23,231 

harmonious working of various Depart- 
ments, p 231 

appropriation granted by the State, and 

reasons inducing it, p. . • • 231 

its seasonableness at the time it was 
given, p 



232 



V. 

Van Rensselaer, Hon. Stephen, his salutary influence 
and liberality on behalf of measures 
for the public welfare, pp. . . 69, 70 

Van Vechten, Abraham, sketch of, p. . . . 71 



W. 

Wainwright, Bishop, sketch of, p 254 

Washington, General, inauguration of as President of 
the United States in old 
Federal Hall, pp.. . . 263,264 



^.^ Z9 



6> Vi-i"- 
368 Index. 

Washington, General, his views of State rights, pp. . 235-239 
his fears of a disruption of the 
Union from the resistance of 
the States to the authority 
of the General Govern- 
ment, pp 338, 339 

his' opinion of defects in the 

Constitution, p. . . . 330 

his respect for the judgment of 
his wife in matters of impor- 
tance, p. . . . . 40 

Wealth, the responsibilities it creates, and how to be 
used to the best advantage both of the pos- 
sessor and his descendants, pp. . . . 299-306 

Whitfield, anecdote of, pp. . . . . . 60, 61 

source of his power as a preacher, pp. . 60-62 
WiTHERSPOON, Rev. Dr., anecdote of, pp. . . . 57-59 



